How important is it for you to attain a holographic image?

Peter_van_keuran:
Yes, I had that Dynaco adapter years ago.  It was very impressive with ambient sound filling from the rear speakers.

Prof,

Maybe you’ve never heard the type of holography I’m speaking of.  It’s not typical imaging, where the soloist is in front of rest of the rest of the forces as you would hear in real life.  It’s a disembodied sound, almost ghostly, hanging in front of the speakers.
 Some systems can create that effect.

No one wants a strange disembodied image. The goal is to be transported to the venue. . . Yes this is very much affected by sound engineers and the way they mic and mix the music. This is why you will find that recordings made and mixed by a person you like will give you more of the same. It is challenging to find sound engineers who are true artists at their craft and can deliver the dynamics we all look for and the imaging/staging that we want to hear. 

Binaural recording is one technique of many to record music by sound engineers using stereo pairs of microphones recording in a mannequin head so that the venue is recorded as it would be heard by a person sitting there. . . The playback has always been limited to headphones to hear the true 3D imaging of the music and environment. Huge strides have been made by Dr. Choueiri at his Prinston Lab to make this happen on our speakers.

Adding BACCH to my system is actually the next evolution of my stereo I am saving up for. The BACCH filters adjust in real time to eliminate comb filtering which is what ruins the 3D affect of true stereo reproduction and hearing the venue as if you were actually there. They have just offered the ability to execute it with a Mac mini. This is the next level in sound reproduction in my opinion and a very exciting time to be part of the audio world.

FWIW, I was wrong about the Carver - Reading about BACCH tickled my memory. Carver's unit has all to do with cross talk cancellations, not phase issues. FWIW.

rvpiano

Maybe you’ve never heard the type of holography I’m speaking of. It’s not typical imaging, where the soloist is in front of rest of the rest of the forces as you would hear in real life. It’s a disembodied sound, almost ghostly, hanging in front of the speakers. Some systems can create that effect.

Aside from having heard (like most audiophiles) countless systems, the speakers I have owned have been notable for their soundstaging and imagine - e.g. Audio Physic, Von Schweikert, Thiel 3.7, and most notable my MBL 121 omni-directional speakers, whose major claim to fame is their extraordinary 3 dimensional imaging. And I have often sat almost nearfield to increase the 3 dimensional effect from my speakers.

Every single instance of sound coming from those speakers, or any others that I’ve heard, is captured in the usual audiophile terms "imaging/soundstaging." Some speakers may have a sway-back dip in the frequency range that recesses the imaging somewhat (e.g. so a centralized singer will always appear behind the speakers to some degree or another), and other moren flat/neutral designs will allow the singing voice to occur along the plane of the speakers (if mixed up front that way), and sometimes may even seem a bit forward of the speakers (rare).


But in all cases a singer is "disembodied" and "ghostly" and "hanging in the air" because that IS the effect of stereo imaging.

I’m afraid I’ll have to give up trying to understand what other phenomenon you think you are hearing.

Prof.

if when you’re listing to a live singer, she/he sounds disembodied or ghostly, 
you must have some extraordinary ears.