'Holographic Sound Stage?'

I think the most holographic sound stage I've ever heard was on the Infinity IRS. If you'd heard it you'd know exactly why people refer to it as holographic -- it's as if you could walk between the instruments, so precisely are the delineated in three dimensional space.

Is it realistic? That's another question entirely. Most of the live acoustical music I've heard didn't image that way. The locations of the instruments are more diffuse, more a cloud than a point, and there was no sense of space between them. And sometimes instruments don't even come from where they should, e.g., if you close your eyes at Carnegie Hall it can sound as if some instruments are coming from the proscenium arch (depending on seating angles).

The sound Jmbatkh is unnatural in the real world. I've been to hundreds of live shows and the degree of depth and separation he describes just doesn't occur in live music. The brain doesn't process live music in such a way, because the sound waves are hitting the ears at roughly the same time. Holographic sound such as Jmbatkh is largely the result of sound processing, speaker design and room effects.

@ Luvs2listen, your 5.3.13 post hit the nail on the head. It is not a trick. It happens when things are setup correctly. Tara Labs Air 1 cable helped my system to achieve holographic presentation of the music with good recordings. I think that the room does play a big role in this also because now I don't want to leave it!!! LOL!.

Over the last 2 years I’ve added an Audience aR 6TS conditioner, upgraded my Theta Casablanca II to a III, and added Clear Day speaker cables and for the first time my 50 year chase I now have a holographic system. Nothing was auditioned or compared side by side with competing brands so whatever I did was along the way was dumb luck.

I read the OP's question more narrowly. Luna asks whether the imaging and staging that a quality hi-fi can produce are ever encountered at live performances. My answer is somewhere between "never" and "almost never". Nonetheless, I find that excellent staging and imaging is critical to creating the illusion of live performance in a home setting. You lose a lot at home vs a live performance, but this is one area where the reproduction feels more real than the real thing. If you're a purist and a rationalist, you may reject the idea on principle. If you want to maximize your enjoyment of recorded music at home, I say "embrace it".

Just MHO.

Marty