Importance of Soundstage/Imaging

IMHO, timbre comes first, the rest are all a distant second. If a piano sounds like a synthesizer, who cares how it images or how much bass, air, dynamics or detail it has?

Jmcgrogan2

you are absolutely correct.

How would you define coherence?

Jmcgrogan is absolutely correct re: timber. After that I'd rank them
2. Coherence
MID-RANGE- how can you leave out the mids???
3. Openness
4. Dynamics
5. Air
6. Detail
7. Bass
8. Imaging

In terms of practicing what I preach, I will be getting a pair of speakers this weekend known for timber, great mid-range, coherence, and dynamics. Trade off is that I will lose the great imaging I currently have. If this thread is still "alive" next week, I'll let you know what I think.

My preference: coherence, dynamics, detail, timber, openness, imaging, air, bass.

My opinion: The last 2 or 3 can sometimes be remedied by selecting components, adding supertweeter/subwoofer, and room treatment. The middle 2 or 3 are really important for realistic rendering of voice or acoustic instruments. But in the end, coherence and dynamics -- of all the transcients of a note and all of its overtones together -- are critical to conveying the musician's action and phrasing, and the music's rhythm and pulse. They are also the hardest to achieve in concert, whether using multiple drivers or single wide-range drivers. I think this combination of coherence and dynamics is often simply called "speed", "fast bass", "electrostatic transcient response" etc.

My speakers: Monitor Audio Studio series, Quad ESL63, Fostex F120A + electrostatic supertweeters, Lowther PM2A, Goodmans Axiom 80 and many other "projects".

-- William