Holographic imaging

Ralph,
The setup you describe reminds me of the "Kunstkopf" experiments, done in Germany in the 90s. The results were fascinating as far as ambience rendering of the recording venue was concerned, but you had to wear special earphones to really appreciate the results. That was the reason that this technology never hit the mainstream. The few recordings that were made are collectible items now.
According to my long listening experience I would intuitively agree with you, that the media constitutes the biggest bottleneck for realistic rendering and indeed, as you also have suggested, I've been battling with my various rooms all of my audiophile life to minimize its interference. A task comparable to that of Sisyphus indeed!
Your tale about the chirping of the robbins makes me think as well:
I've been complaining quite often here, that what keeps us most away from the "Absolute Sound" at home,is what I call bloom or aura, that magic moment, where a note played, say from a solo violin spreads into space, emanating almost from all around the instrument. That is something distinctly different, I think, from what we have discussed here. Too much of holography spoils this by masking just that effect.
Quite possibly you are right, that it is the media, not the gear.
I do not have one CD that can do it. Mostly to mimic that effect, they mix in a bit of hall around the voice or instrument, which I find annoying. I know of a large number of classical piano recordings on LP, where you hear exactly where the right pedal sets in, but that is not quite the same thing either.
If it is the medium and not the "messenger"-rig, do you know of media that do truly render this "bloom", which apart from room-interference, as you so rightly point out,is to me the biggest obstacle to the "Absolute Sound" at home?

Cheers and thanks for your most valuable inputs here!
Detlof
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WOW!! This is sounding like a cable thread I see on other forms.

Prove it, prove it, prove it!!

If you hear a difference, buy it, if you don't then move on.

Or maybe ask Ray Kimber to prove his cables are better than then others.

>>I never intended to advance knowledge<<

I don't think anybody expects that is possible.

"Don't think for a second that the system is going to sound like the hall- it isn't. It **can** sound, and very convincingly, like your listening room is grafted onto a space (which might be a hall) wherein the music is happening. "

Another great point by Atmasphere.

This is very doable. This is what I tend to shoot for with my system in order to be fully satisfied with what I hear.

Detlof, in working with CD and LP mastering and with digital and analog master recordings, over and over again I am always struck and disappointed by the signal losses that occur during the mastering process, regardless of the format. If anything, the CD format seems to loose *more* during the process of going from master to produced copy than seems to happen with the LP.

When you are listening to the direct microphone feed, and then compare that to the results of a digital master file or a 1/2" analog master tape (regardless of tape speed) there is always a degradation noticable there too.

If you are familiar with this degradation, you can compensate **slightly** for its loss by microphone placement, but its tricky and most engineers will not take the time. I think this and the above phenomena is why there so few truly exceptional recordings, **especially** when you factor the performance into the equation!

When it comes down to it, I'll go for the performance nearly every time, and simple deal with whatever vulgarities the recording is otherwise. Such a world!