Soundstaging and imaging are audiophile fictions.

Sometimes at live performances non visual spatial information/"imaging" can be inescapbly apparent. Quite a few experimental/avant garde compositions rely heavily on this fact. Performers can move to different locations in a recital hall and greatly alter how directional and tonal information is perceived. Sometimes at live performances you will get one big group of sounds that doesn't reveal a focused attack and decay of individual instruments. Most 'goners probably already agree that music doesn't have to have "pinpoint imaging or a well resolved soundstage" to work. If you like it, it's good.

A very valid point is that made by Stuartbranson: all the senses work together so that, ultimately, there is nothing like the live experience. Most significant is the visual aspect. Another good point IMHO is that the missing ingredient in home reproduction of music is ambiance. The knee-jerk reaction by a lot of audiophiles to multichannel is just that. So you will always have your proponents of obscure forces at work trying to get it right with vinyl, stereo, analog, magic cables of all kinds, vibration dampening devices and a myriad of other cures to non existent problems. The future lies squarely in multichannel systems, properly implemented, playing well recorded/mixed material. People are free to listen to whatever they want and to opine to their heart's delight, including rambling on about the miseries of digital, the shortcomings of Redbook CD reproduction, the battle between SACD and DVD-A as carrying the seeds of multichannel destruction, of Quadraphonics in the 70s, of the analogy with Betamax, of nature and the little tweety birds, I just hope that enough people will be interested in MC audio to make it work.

Any animal's ear (including a human's) should have no trouble to very accurately identify the direction and distance of sounds. It's survival.

One thing that hasn't been clearly stated is that for an acoustic performance (e.g., orchestral) the microphones are usually placed closer to the performers than the vast majority of the audience. By being closer to the microphones the relative distances of the individual performers to the microphones is greater thereby emphasizing (exagerating?) the depth and width. My experience at the symphony is width and depth are there but not near as prominent as on recordings. While this is a nice effect, I think getting tonality correct is the real secret to a good audio system.

Tastes great; less filling.

Maryann or Ginger.

Bose 901's