System that sounds so real it is easy to mistaken it is not live

My Quad 2905s have a pair of extra panels over the usual arrangement of the 63 and later models. They aren't bad at bass, but it is rather polite. Fine for classical music, but not really authentic for good recordings of small ensembles. My fix for it will horrify those with more money to throw at it: I have a powered subwoofer, made by Axiom in Canada, and bought very cheaply to go with a basement movie room in my old house. My pre-amp has two sets of outputs, one for my Quad II/forty amps, and the other goes to a Musical Fidelity X-Can V3 for headphones. The X-Can has a pass-through function, so I can use its output jacks to go to the powered subwoofer. It has its own volume control and crossover adjustment. I do use Y-connectors to make the X-Can work in mono (you'll see why below) and to feed a mono signal on to the subwoofer.

The subwoofer blends in nicely with the Quad ESLs and it doesn't seem at all disjointed to me. I may have two advantages here: the new house has a large open plan main floor, and in the centre of it is a fireplace and chimney breast which rises up to the post and beam rafters. My Quads sit on either side of the fireplace, the monoblocks are at the side of the fireplace, and the turntables etc sit on an old oak chest at the rear of the chimney breast. The subwoofer sits beside the chest. No one sitting on the sofas in front of the speakers has any idea where the bass is coming from, and it only sounds odd if you go back to the turntables and discover the bass is pretty strong back there. However, no one listens back there as the area is a large curved staircase well down into the basement. My secret weapon though, is that I have only one functional ear, so I just don't do directional hearing at all! I'd like to hear stereo, but never have since I lost my left ear aged eight, and I can't say I miss it as I have no memory of what it was like. That's why I make my headphones play in mono. So it all works for me and makes me happy. My old neighbour from the last house was a concert pianist and when she visits I play her all sorts of piano pieces, and she often comments on how it sounds like there is an actual piano in the room. She should know: she has a baby grand in her house!

@lewm You're referring to the B1 subwoofer. One of our customers ran a pair of B1 subs between his A1s. It was helpful to get the bass excursion off of the main panels so it could be lower distortion.

@asctim my Dad was a trumpet player and I've been conjecturing for years why no recording of a trumpet (and worse, string sections) doesn't sound anything like live. 

My theories are:

1) Dispersion pattern, as you noted. 

2) Mismatch between speaker type and mic type

3) Trumpet has a DC component to the outflowing air column that may create complex phase variances microphones can't capture or speakers can't play

It is a constant annoyance when guitars sound 8 feet wide, violin sections sound like a bad synthesizer, pianos sound like they are mounted vertically on the front wall, etc. and I agree recording technique is largely to blame. 

I've considered building a pair of dodecahedron mics and matching speakers to see if that works. But 24 channel stereo just isn't something current media and gear can handle.

@esputnix my one jaw drop moment was taking a tour of Mechanics Ha in Worcester, MA. First we were in the hall itself, then we went upstairs to their highly customized remote listening area with B&W 801s just outside the mixing booth upstairs. The walls were specially treated and the room was packed with people. Because we had just left the hall our ears were accustomed to its acoustics, so when they played a live recording it seriously sounded like w and a requsst in right in front of the orchestra. It was magical. I've never heard anything like it since, but if you have the opportunity to travel, ask them if they can arrange for a tour so you can hear what I heard. 

They played 

@lewm , thanks Lew. That is a common subwoofer mistake, crossing over too low. The makers of commercial subs using just a low pass filter suggest that but, it does not clean up the main speaker as much. Info below 40 Hz is relatively rare. If you can see the cones of the subwoofers moving then Doppler distortion is at play not to mention the non linearities you get into on far excursions. If you play test tones you can easily see the cones moving up to about 100 Hz. This is double important on ESLs because the driver is full range. When dealing with a dynamic speakers it will only be the range of the woofer that is cleaned up. This is still substantial in most instances. This mandates a complete two way crossover. I am also talking about digital crossovers which are a benefit as delays can be adjusted so that the signal arrives at the listening position at the same time in phase. The best location for dipoles in the room is never the best location for subwoofers. It is not easy to make subs blend in with 8 foot tall ESLs. It is not the dipole nature of ESL that creates the conflict but rather the line source characteristics. It requires a line source subwoofer especially if crossing up higher. As I previously mentioned Dr West is aware of all of this but he has to sell loudspeakers to survive and many people do not want to get involved in loudspeakers that require subs. Jim Strickland of Acoustat was the same way, maybe worse. He stubbornly refused to admit his speakers benefited from subwoofers.