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


I’m wondering how many A’goners consider a holographic image a must for them to enjoy their systems?  Also, how many achieve this effect on a majority of recordings?
Is good soundstaging enough, or must a three dimensional image be attained in all cases.  Indeed, is it possible to always achieve it?

128x128rvpiano
@newbee  Hence my belief that full-scale orchestral recordings are the toughest--and to some extent, impossible--test of systems and the rooms they're installed in.

Hi Newbee

Lets start with an easy one that everyone can do and it will help everyone see where we all are.

Beatles Abbey Road: Track 10 "the crickets"

This is one you can use in the studio, at home or even a pro event stereo mix. It's one of the most written about references as well as used in classrooms.

Most of the time you would have everyone listen and then write and draw what they heard. Then they hand it in to the teacher and the different versions are then discussed. I've done this as well on TuneLand.

mg

@orpheus10

—-“I stand by that statement 100%, “

Suite yourself. Doesn’t make it a jot more reasonable to keep standing by it.

If I declared “Without a shadow of a doubt the most desirable car is the 68 corvette”
everyone would understand I am talking for MYSELF since I used the word “desirable” which is a subjective value statement.

No matter how many times I stand by that claim, that will remain the case. To think otherwise is to be confused about the nature of subjectivity and objectivity.

—-“Since whether you know it or not; it is 100% impossible to get holography without having the other desirable elements of audio; “

So you claim. I hope you won’t be insulted if we don’t automatically take everything you claim as Gospel Truth. I haven’t seen reason yet to presume we are in the presence of an enlightened audio guru - writing style aside :).

My own experience suggests your claim is incorrect. I have heard plenty of systems do some incredible dimensionality and soundstaging while sounding to my ears bereft of convincing instrumental timbre, or dynamics, or other traits.

There is no perfect audio reproduction system. All have compromised to one degree or another - something that some other system may do better, or that is preferred by other listeners.

Therefore someone who chooses a system that does not do everything exactly as YOU want it is not by default desiring some coloration akin to a smiley faced eq. It may simply be that they have chosen their own set of compromises where the system has better fidelity either to some aspect of the source or to the qualities of live music that another system doesn’t do as well.

I played in a large funk band for many years. If my main criteria were to reproduce that type of live sound as closely as possible any number of pro PA speakers would kick the crap out of the typical audiophile system no matter how “holographic” their image. Holography wouldn’t even come in to the picture as the live sound never had such a quality to begin with.

So there is no “one size fits all” criteria or claim that can be made as you seem to want to make.


Getting a nice deep wide soundstage is best accomplished, at least to a large degree, by a method that eliminates or reduces trial and error. Correct speaker placement is critical for obtaining the best possible soundstage, but the ubiquitous trial and error technique of moving a little, listening a little is bound to fail to come up with the absolute best locations. The best you can do is find a local maximum. The best way to determine the best speaker locations for any speaker in any room, for whatever stage of room treatment employed, is using one of the test CDs that contain a speaker set up track, also called out of phase track. Another tip is start with speakers closer together and work outward. As fate would have it most speakers should be placed closer together, not farther apart. You know, for best soundstage. Of course, there’s a lot more to it than speaker placement.

Newbee, I was listening to "Black Widow" by Lalo Schifrin, and discovered this record was quite holographic. While it's not a special record in regard to exclusivity (it's quite common) it is special in regard to music and recording quality.

Lalo Schifrin is also quite special; he has done a lot of excellent work for the movie industry.

In the evening, I settle back and listen to music the same as someone with a one box record player; it's all about the music; we might even be listening to the same music. That was meant to clarify any and all misconceptions.


Enjoy the music.