I've really only heard the disappearing effect to a highly convincing level by using a divider plate to eliminate stereo cross talk, sitting fairly close to the speakers and far from the walls, and then some EQ to fix the response issues caused by the divider plate, and then a recording that has some coherent ambient information in it, which usually means NOT a studio mix of any kind. It didn't require high end equipment. Just a highly inconvenient listening setup. Getting the EQ right was extremely important to creating the illusion for me.I also used absorption above and to the sides of the speakers to minimize wall reflections. Really a PITA, but I've never heard anything more convincing from megabuck systems. Crosstalk is the great spoiler in my mind, bringing great systems down a long, long way and making them sound essentially similarly wrong to much, much less expensive systems in terms of imaging. At least that's how my ears react. So I don't pay as much attention to imaging depth and pay attention mostly to clarity and good tonality, low distortion, smooth dispersion and response. I expect a speaker system to reveal itself sonically like a good work of art does visually, with it's frame clearly visible, but also give me a very good insight into the musical performance, which is plenty challenging but at least it's possible without getting into a very constrained listening position.
