Is it just me or do others prefer having just cross feed on over expanse 1 or 2. It’s on very rare occasions that I prefer either expanse 1 or 2. Would be good to hear other people experience with these settings. Also I appreciate it’s been gone over in great detail but those that don’t mind repeating their preferred settings for Bartok would also be interesting. Had Bartok almost a year now & have still not nailed favourite settings.
I think it depends on what you’re listening to and the headphones you are using.
I originally preferred Expanse 1 on my SR-X9000’s as I felt the soundstage was as deep as it was wide, but settled on Expanse 2 after a period of time.
Neither setting worked well on another pair of headphones I tried, so your mileage may vary! Ultimately, what matters is your own experience 
2 Likes
In my view the headphones are a key component in this matter. To fully disclose, I am listening via Bartok 2.0 (non-Apex) + Rossini Clock fed via Ethernet from Nucleus Plus (V2) which is powered by Nordost QSouce LPS and Nordost Premium cables (powering both the Nucleus and my network switch). From the Bartok, headphone cables are the Transparent Audio Ultra headphone cables (the only headphone cables Transparent offers), which power my Focal Utopia headphones (latest Gen 3 version).
I originally listened via this same system through Sennheiser HD800S headphones. One of the Sennheiser’s strong suits is a very open soundstage, and I tried both Expanse settings and didn’t care for it, never listened via Expanse again after the initial several hours with lots of my favorite music. I then got a chance to borrow a pair of the Utopias, and it was a whole new world over the HD 800S. Far more definition, weight, much more dynamic and realistic, much better bottom end. So I bought a pair of the Focals and sold the Sennheisers. To be fair, it shouldn’t have been close as the Utopia’s retail for $5K, the HD800s only $1,799. Once I had the Utopias for about a month, the only thing I missed that the HD800’s had offered was that very open soundstage and the excellent imaging that came with it. So, it dawned on me that maybe I should try Expanse again. Wow! It gave me the best of both worlds, and other than briefly, I haven’t listened without Expanse since. I didn’t really see why so many people love Expanse until I got the Utopias. I have generally settled on these settings: Mapper 1, occasionally Mapper 3 and mostly filter 1, Expanse 1. Since settling on all of this via headphones, I probably listen via the headphones ~20% of the time vs. ~80% via the full system with speakers.
1 Like