Soundstaging and Imaging: The Delusion about The Illusion

Those expressing confusion about my original post should try placing my post into the context of the link I provided. Yes, it requires one to click a link and read an article. If one has the energy to type a response and click the “post” button, then one would likely have sufficient energy to read the Stereophile article. Soundstaging and imaging are both discussed and differentiated there.

I suspect the trolls won’t expend that energy, as the energy expended on posting their hit piece was likely sufficient for their purposes.

Both opposing views expressed in the article are wrong and pedestrian. No offense to anyone intended.

If I understand the specific question you ask about the individual participants appearing distinctly, that seems to be how well placed the microphones are to catch the differences in intensity and reflections within the recorded space. The disbelief factor I get from the sense of depth of layering makes me go for your illusion description. I believe delusion is when someone insists that their sense of reality is real when others disagree. I get the biggest chills from the distance front to back I perceive, not width or left-right distinction that stereo was originally consumed with proving. Stereo played in mono still gives a greater sense (illusion) of depth of field than mono recordings to me. Many listeners I know like a forward sound that seems closer to them (more intimate), where I prefer the depth illusion (but not at the cost of dynamics). Because I heard recorded music many years before attending a live symphony, I prefer to sit front row to maybe a few rows back at most. But that interesting depth of field effect from stereo reproduction is where stereo magic lies for me.   

Just to mention that soundstage has three dimensions, not just depth. It has depth, width and height. But Rome wasn’t built in a day. Nobody said it’s easy to get Boston Symphony Hall to magically appear in your room. If it was easy everybody could do it. Once you can get all three dimensions in their full measure you will feel as free and happy as a Swedish teenage girl.