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How important is it for you to attain a holographic image?

I’m wondering how many A’goners consider a holographic image a must for them to enjoy their systems?  Also, how many achieve this effect on a majority of recordings?
Is good soundstaging enough, or must a three dimensional image be attained in all cases.  Indeed, is it possible to always achieve it?

128x128rvpiano
d2girls's avatar
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d2girls
1,029 posts
 
Dynamics are everything.. it will be painful to downsize as I do believe nothing will touch my current speakers dynamics below or at it’s price point... on the suggestion of someone here I put on Roger Water’s Amused to Death album. Wow... talk about holographic. It felt like I was having an intimate conversation with Roger when he began speaking a minute into the track Perfect Sense. What a spooky holographic album. Well if my Jbl 4367 can handle holographic I’m sure many other speakers can. I’ve found holographic to be a neat trick that most speaker can do. It’s more dependant on your room and the recording then anything. Anyway... like Geoff said dynamics are king. They are everything. If you have good dynamics everything will simply come together
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jafant
19,580 posts
 
rvpiano
concentrate on accurate Tone and Timbre first.  Happy Listening!
newbee
4,767 posts
 
RVpiano, d2girls beat me to it, but for the record, if it ain't in the recording it's never going to come out of your speakers, and it is rarely in the recording. Now if you happen to have such a recording (such as Depth of Image by Opus 3) electronics with good dynamics and low level resolution, and a well set up system, you can have what you would like. 

I don't expect to get that level of sound staging in my home and just don't listen for it (anymore) - I just listen to the music. That is why I came to the party in the first place.


ricred1
2,004 posts
 
The room and recording play such a vital role in obtaining a holographic image, detail, and bass response. A friend and I were talking the other day about how much music we listen to is so badly recorded it makes us sick. 
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bdp24
9,788 posts
 

For me, it isn't a matter of whether or not holographic imaging is heard live; live is one thing, recordings another. If soundstaging is inherent in a recording and your system isn't reproducing it, what else is it missing?

It was Harry Pearson and The Absolute Sound who made imaging and soundstaging a priority, to a degree beyond my desires. I will admit that the first time I heard the great depth in a recording (Holst's The Planets, Boult on EMI, iirc) reproduced by a system (a complete Decca/ARC/Magneplanar Tympani system set up by Bill Johnson), I found the sound of a tiny little triangle being played way at the back of the orchestra thrilling. It actually appeared to be further away than was the wall behind the speakers!

As it is for others, my priority in reproduced music is lifelike timbre, especially that of singing voices. Of them I cannot abide any degree of added coloration. Next is transparency---hearing though the equipment back to the recording itself. The one aspect of imaging important to me is that of instrument size and height, though those are not exactly the same; you can have either without the other.

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