Is imaging reality?

I think speakers that faithfully reproduce orchestral music would be reviewed as "muddy", "smearing", "imprecise", and whatever else. So, the answer to the OP would be "no". At the same time, going to the concert used to be much more pleasant experience than putting a record on.

I would say I have also come to appreciate recorded music that is produced with an intention of how the end user will hear it. Obviously no engineer or producer knows exactly what equipment the end user will have or his listening environment. But there are some bands who maximize those considerations. Steely Dan comes to mind. It is not just the playing of the song that represents the end product. The production and engineering are equally as important and equally well done.

To some Steely Dan sounds overproduced and artificial. I get that, but that's not how I feel about it. No, it does not sound live. No, it does not even sound like they are trying to make it sound like you are there listening to it being played. They make it sound the way they wanted it to sound coming out of your speaker. I like that. And most systems will capture that intent.


And I really dislike it when production and engineering are done poorly.....no matter how well the song was executed by the musicians.

Though it could be said that imaging is only one of many elements a good system must deliver in order to satisfy, there's no denying that it exerts a hell of a pull.  I crave it.

Imaging is essential and timbre naturalness...

The only way i obtain that from my good speakers was by embedding then rightfully mechanically, electrically, and acoustically....

It takes me 2 years of experiments....

Can someone win that S.Q. without any working controls with costly speakers right out of the box? Perhaps.... But these miraculous speakers will cost how many bucks?

A great deal of money......If it is possible.... :)

Some systems are better (more 'accurate' in a strictly subjective sense) than others at imaging, whether that's the gear itself or how well dialed into the room it is, or both, or neither. On the same track, three systems might reveal the bass player standing a couple feet in front of the trumpet player, while the fourth system might show the trumpet player a couple feet in front of the bass player. Never mind the question of which systems might be 'right' or 'wrong', that's a separate issue and is generally unknowable unless we were there or we have a verified picture of the original event. 

About all we can say is that more likely than not, there will be some variation or other in the sound stage reproduction...so, in that sense, imaging is not, strictly speaking, necessarily a direct correlation with reality...but, like everything else in the illusion of sound reproduction - when we say it's good, it can certainly seem to Remind us of our notion of what that original event might've sounded like.