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Is soundstage just a distortion?

Years back when I bought a Shure V15 Type 3 and then later when I bought a V15 Type 5 Shure would send you their test records (still have mine). I also found the easiest test to be the channel phasing test. In phase yielded a solid center image but one channel out of phase yielded a mess, but usually decidedly way off center image.

This got me thinking of the difference between analog and digital. At its best (in my home) I am able to get a wider soundstage out of analog as compared to digital. Which got me thinking- is a wide soundstage, one that extends beyond speakers, just an artifact of phase distortion (and phase distortion is something that phono cartridges can be prone to)? If this is the case, well, it can be a pleasing distortion.
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onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,218 posts
 
Soundstage is determined by recording technique. For purist recordings the microphone setup is the determinate. For studio recordings soundstage info is created via electronic processors.

On the reproduction side it is not clear to me that audiophiles are interested in an accurate soundstage reproduction. Wider or deeper seems to be desired whether or not it is warranted. Dipoles, wide dispersion or rear firing tweeters and omnis all overlay additional soundstage info to what is already in the recording.

If your system can provide a reasonable facsimile of the real soundstage info present in a purist recording, it means your system a lot of other things really well.
martykl
3,578 posts
 
Grab any Q sound encoded source material and you'll Very Clearly see (hear?) that soundstage is not only not a "distortion", but its also not purely a function of your system. If your program material is recorded in a manner that allows dramatic staging, a good system will pass that through in the listening.

Marty

BTW. Q sound isn't necessarily great in any other way, but the stage is dramatic. IIRC, Madonna's Immaculate Collection (Hits) is a Q sound disc
abucktwoeighty's avatar
abucktwoeighty
1,079 posts
 
Google "Q Sound". Their website has a list of all of their q sound recordings.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
My London Decca cartridge on OTOH does staging I would describe as 'other worldly' in comparison to any other cartridge or digital I've ever heard. I used to think it was artificial but I can't see a cartridge having the ability to rearrange the sound stage. The only conclusion I can come to is that analog does in fact provide a much more defined and accurate as engineered sound stage. This has been my overall experience.
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I agree with Csontos - analog recording recreates soundstaging quite a bit better than digital recording does. This is one of the main reasons why so many professional musicians still prefer it, and wish that it was still done. As much as digital recording has improved, it is still in the end a mix of way too many different mikes, and the end result, even though it can be altered and controlled and edited so much more easily, is not as natural sounding.
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