Audio Science Review = "The better the measurement, the better the sound" philosophy

As noted, I heard (until Covid), 1000s of live performances from my 100s of recordings, performances to season opera tickets (400-500 live opera alone).  I seek to reproduce the most realistic sound of those venues and my large music collection.  I've only encountered the total immersive experience with Von Schweikert Ultra 9 and 11 speakers in $1+ million system at two shows.  I've heard some rather good systems but none that "do it all" and sound like the mic feed (VS claims it's their reverse mic feed design of the speaker).     

My own main system does get close recorded small combo jazz right where the instruments sound live, like they are in my room playing.  Cymbals could be a little bigger but the drums are real sounding (my speakers are rolled off in the highs with a soft dome lower and ribbon upper tweeters).  My friend's YG Sonja 2.3s sound great but not as realistic, as in the room musicians performing, rather his system sets back musicians a distance.  Pleasant but not realistic.   

It's taken me a lifetime to get sound where I'm at now and the piece de resistance would be a high end full range speaker that does it all. 

It is common now for full range speakers to have a narrow footprint for most homes and your set up requires it.  

Black and white film on a screen often exhibits a shimmering effect which is captivating.  We watch many 30's and 40's films and great movies can be mesmerizing with that effect.  It's not 3D and it's not color but what a great experience. 

@fleschler you said:

the total immersive experience 

With the setup you have you certainly don't need to change anything. It might be interesting to discuss another way to get this "immersive" experience (especially if you like movies from the 30's, 40's, or today)

Please stop my my thread on atmos if you want to discuss more. Thanks

Immersive audio at CEDIA in 2022, check out how Focal deploys 7 FULL range speakers and 4 height channels so no big box subs needed. The demo spekaers are on display, at home you would use acoustically transparent fabric on the walls making both your speakers and room treatments "invisible":

@prof 

Having done various blind tests over the years, it's a very powerful lesson.  It's too bad many audiophiles haven't experienced their 'sighted' impressions dissolving away when they can't use their knowledge of which piece of gear is actually playing.   There's nothing that sinks in like an actual experience.

Yup, I've experienced my sighted impressions "dissolving away." It's both a  humbling and amazing experience. I've done it both with cables and testing a burned in amp against an identical model that hadn't been burned in. I can't express how obvious the difference in sound quality seemed to me during the sighted listening, so having the effect completely vanish just because I couldn't see which device I was listening to was like experiencing magic. In the end it taught me how malleable my perception of sound quality is to both conscious and unconscious expectations. My ear transduces the sound and then my brain interprets the resulting signal in the light of other sensory information.

@fleschler, you and I have similar experiences.  I had an uncle into hifi in the 60s and 70s that caught my attention.  He had a Dual turntable and a Pioneer receiver.  Then I got myself a Kenwood receiver in the mid 70s just before my sophomore year.  I bought more upscale Kenwood gear once graduating college but my hifi experience began when I went to a co worker's house in 1988 and heard his highly modified Quad ESLs driven by a Quicksilver Amp, modified ARC SP-8 preamp and a Sota Star with the ET-II tonearm on a Billybags stand.  It was the most magical musical moment of my life.  Since then I have always had an ARC tube preamp but I shied away from tube amps.  First, having two little boys back then I was afraid for their lives and now that they are grown and gone I often think of getting some tube amps if not for the recurring costs.  Any tube amp with output greater than 100 W/ch gets expensive to re-tube, it seems.  It's not that I can't afford it.  It's my mid-western upbringing I would say, because no one else I grew up with would ever spend a fortune on stereo gear like I have done.  That night alone with Suzanne Vega and those Quad ESL's infected me badly.

You should post some pics of your system.  Would love to see it.  I've gone from Planars through the 90s to Thiels to Wilson speakers.  I built a dedicated room in the early 90s for the Planars but then moved from that house.  That was the best sound I had until now with the Wilsons.  I had double walls, sound treatment in the corners and dedicated power.  I did the ceiling in 1/2" drywall with thick, rough paint for  diffusion.  Now I have that sound with the addition of much more powerful and clear bass.