Soundstaging and imaging are audiophile fictions.


Recently I attended two live performances in one week--a folk duo in a small club and a performance of Swan Lake by a Russian ballet company. I was reminded of something I have known for many years but talked myself out of for the sake of audiophilia: there is no such thing as "imaging" in live music! I have been hearing live music since I was a child (dad loved jazz, mom loved classical) and am now in my 50s. I have never, NEVER heard any live music on any scale that has "pinpoint imaging" or a "well resolved soundstage," etc. We should get over this nonsense and stop letting manufacturers and reviewers sell us products with reve reviews/claims for wholly artificial "soundstaging"

I often think we should all go back to mono and get one really fine speaker while focusing on tonality, clarity and dynamics--which ARE real. And think of the money we could save.

I happily await the outraged responses.
Jeffrey
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Showing 1 response by devilnbluedressdfad

This is a valid point.

Especially with amplified music.

Certain unamplified music when done correctly can have a soundstage of sorts.

The thing is that instruments (especially acoustic instruments) radiate music radically differently then speakers project the music at playback.

The thing is that many recording engineers engineer for a soundstage. They figure that we hear in stereo, we have stero playback, why not use the stereo option?

The one thing that a well defined soundstage gives us is the ability to easilly listen to individual instruments. This might be a surreal effect, but can be very seductive.

Many audiophiles may claim they are looking for live sounding music from their system, but ultimately that is IMPOSSIBLE. Physics does not let us record instruments naturally or radiate music naturally or do anything inbetween naturally.

We can try to get as close as we can.

DB