Please Read and express your feelings and opinions....

As I have stated before, it is open game, and should be. Any postings not appreciated by others can be ignored. On the subject of soundstaging. Although soundstaging in a system is very important, it is not one of my top five or six most important characteristics. Tone, coherence, flat frequency response, top to bottom extension, prat, and dynamics are. Putting a system together would also include : black, quiet background ( lack of distortions ), including hum, hiss, unnatural echos and reverberations ( room acoustics ), minimal mechanical and acoustical vibrations or feedback. If a system fails in any of my top five or six, the soundstaging will not make up for what is lacking elsewhere. I want it all. I am quite pleased with my systems soundstaging.

Michael, I'm pretty sure I responded to that stupid statement of Geoff's, as well as citing examples of how it's synthesized. It seems to me we must have figured out how to measure those spacial attributes if we're creating devices and techniques that simulate them. My recording/production engineer friend has all kinds of tricks up his sleeve for adding depth, height, and width to mixes. 

+100 mrdecibel,
My priorities in sonic presentations as well.Soundstage is about the least important attribute to me but I do want it conveyed in a convincing manner too.

If a system is lacking the correct Tone and Timbre,for me,It’s a deal breaker and something has to change.

Enjoy,
Kenny.

@kdude66 Yes, timbre as well ( I put tone and timbre together ). Of course, clarity and detail would need to be added to my list.......As an old timer and more experienced in audio, it is easier to decipher the critical elements important to me. The newbies rely on information spoken here. They are like the kids of today, as all the information is available on the net. But lest not forget, listening is the ultimate criteria. Enjoy, MrD.

While soundstage height is not very important to me, my engineer friend is constantly harping on the openess from top to bottom and side to side his system has with similar equipment and wiring. Where his system and mine greatly differs is that he is using a two way monitor speaker with 1st order crossover in a smaller, acoustically damped room. My speakers are 4.5 way, 7 driver large speakers in a large, live sounding room. Totally different. Missing some height in some Ellington and Santana recordings (such as bells and xylophones above my head) doesn’t bother me as it does him. I am more concerned as several posters are above with tone, timbre, timing, clarity and detail. With my SR and TC treatments, the soundstage width is adequate for seating along a 10’ couch (or nearly anywhere in the room) to be very enjoyable and not locked into the center only. So, I’m not missing the height my friend has.