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

The best imaging I've ever heard however was from a HT system running Neo6 in music mode.

It filled in the center very nicely.

For me, there has been nothing more important; when it appeared in my listening room, I knew everything else was together.

It is impossible to get a good holographic image without top notch electronics, that let me know that I not only had high end components, but high end sound as well.

While it varies from record to record, the essence of depth and 3D is always there.

Orpheus 10,

What are your components?

Source is Marantz 8260 CD player, or, tweaked to the bone RP3, Grado Master 2 cartridge, followed by an Audible Illusions Modulus 3A that feeds Primaluna monoblocks.

I have custom 3 way speakers that utilize a Heil AMT; they're dipole; this helps the holographic sound stage.

My listening room has a vaulted ceiling, the speakers are 4 feet from the front wall and 2 feet from the side walls.

Now that it's winter, all is perfect; let me explain that; the left wall is a sliding glass door to the patio; that's not good. However, since it's winter, I have that door covered over with light insulation; consequently, no more sliding glass door, but a wall of insulation that makes the room perfect.

I consider what I have to be the ground floor of a good holographic image. I will be glad to answer any question you have.

I said before that the idea of a ’holographic’ image is not all that important to me. But if I use that term, and maybe I use it wrong, that represents an image that has a near perfect representation of a projected realistic (sound) image. In other words that means to me : drums, 4 feet behind lead guitar and maybe a little behind the speakers, bass player 6 feet to the left, rhythm guitar 4 feet to the right, lead singer 8 feet in front of me and well in front of the speakers, voice 4.75 feet off the ground, lead singers just behind and to the left of the speakers.

I do not get that with my system. And I don’t think many recordings give that sort of image.

On the other hand, if the sound image was perfectly flat, or just in a big messy ball in the middle or if the music sounded like it was being piped out of my speakers like a hose, then yes, that would be a deal breaker.

As others have mentioned, even with a low end system I can usually get the speakers in the right place to at least have the sound in the middle and out in front of the speakers and with some hint of 3 dimensionality.