A recessed soundstage and an overall lack of punch.
It turns out Jan's question is a relevant one
In my opnion a laid back sound is listening from a seat in the 3rd row instead of the 1st row. A recessed soundstage doesn't come to my mind I heard speakers that were "upfront", in your ear but lacked stage depth, rather a wall of sound than a true sound stage. Other speakers with a more reserved presentation had a very nice stage depth and a sense of being there...at the 3rd row.
My personal thought as to "laid back" was that the performance sounded like it was not thrust up front, as if you were sitting up front at a concert. Rather it would sound like you were sitting back in the hall, where the reverberation from the surrounding surfaces affects what you hear much more so than if you were up front.
A laid back speaker to my ears has a mellow sound without overly aggressive highs.
Well, that is where the lack of punch comes into play. Rock guitar lacks excitement. You can turn the volume up loud but the illusion of the band is still a bit far away. I use the first album by Montrose (featuring Sammy Hagar). "I Got The Fire" & "Rock Candy" are the songs. Janet Jackson's live "Black Cat" is a very dynamic test song too. Then there is an old Stooges song on the "Raw Power" album, "Shake Appeal" that's fun to crank up at the audio showrooms...also Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love".
Once a cymbal is struck, it continues to oscillate for a duration of time. The purpose of a speaker is to duplicate these oscillations with respect to frequency, amplitude and duration. If the amplitude reduces faster than the original sound, it means either the amplifier is not applying the force required to move the speaker or the speaker offers too much resistance. It is this resistance that I referred to as 'damping'. Its beginning to sound like impedence though!
I started by comparing the sound of a metal tweeter to a silk dome. With metal tweeters, the cymbal sounds like it was made of foil, while with the silk tweeter, more like brass. I thought it was to do with the duration for which the sound lasted. I must admit however, that the tone (frequency?) seems slightly different between speakers too. Which would amount to distortion? I prefer rock, such as Metallica, on boom box speakers and even my car's stock speakers than the NAD/Wharfedale combination at home. The 'harshness' of electric guitar seems tamed on the Wharfedale speakers. On the other hand, I like Norah Jones voice on Wharfedales. Cannot bear it on boom boxes. Hence, I classified boom box and car audio as 'forward' and home stereo as 'laid back'. I've got observations on bass frequencies too, but will stop before the ditch I've dug myself into gets any deeper. I did not realize 'laid back' had to do with sound stage.
Srinivas, I will buy your input to this point. The Rolling Stones on a high end kit is counter-productive. Then there's old Mellencamp, which just don't sound right if it ain't loud.
Anything in the audio chain can change the sound - source, amp, speakers, cabling or lousy mains. The degree to which any component makes a change depends on the neutrality and transparency of the rest of the system components. So for example, if you have a Rega Apollo and Mira (naturally not laid back), both the cabling and speakers would have to be absolute dogs for it to sound laid back (cue Spendor for example). On the other hand, a Musical Fidelity combo would easily be made to sound laid back - simply apply vdh cables (not really laid back but on the slower side of neutral) and it won't matter how fast your speakers are, the system will sound laid back.
