Is soundstage just a distortion?

Some recordings with huge untampered-with soundstage include Dave Mason Live, Paul McCartney Live, Clash Live, Lou Reed Rock and Roll Animal, New Jersey Percussion All-Stars on Nonesuch label, and Jazz at the Pawnshop.

I suspect that the ambient information contained in the recording, you know, the reverberant decay, echo, etc. is three dimensional; thus, on well recorded material the size of the venue is identifiable on a reasonably good home system as Carnegie Hall or Boston Symphony Hall, for example. Thus as one's system evolves, one should observe a better reproduction if the three dimensional ambient information, and a more accurate representation of the recording venue. One should be able, with some persistence, to get the perceived height of the soundstage to be the actual height of the room where the recording was made. Think of the soundstage as an expanding sphere. I can certainly understand if you've never gotten soundstage height you might be a little mystified.

It's a little ironic that there are such things as records and CDs that test for soundstage since the soundstage you get is going to be limited by the, uh, limitations of the system you play them on. Kinda like seeing an ad for HDTV on your old fashioned 90s Panasonic. The HDTV picture quality in the ad is going to be limited by the constraints of the Panasonic. Wasn't Opus 3 another record label that "tested" for soundstage?

Newbee - Exactamundo! You have my guarantee if you see an for a fabulous plasma TV on your crappy Samsung 24" tv you will not be seeing it in its full glory. By the way, soundstage is real as a colonoscopy. What's the rumpus?

The latest Dead Can Dance CD has soundstage and dynamics to die for. Their first CD in 16 (count 'em) years!