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Soundstaging and Imaging: The Delusion about The Illusion

Soundstaging in a recording—be it a live performance or studio event—and it’s reproduction in the home has been the topic of many a discussion both in the forums and in the audio press. Yet, is a recording’s soundstage and imaging of individual participants, whether musicians or vocalists, things that one can truly perceive or are they merely illusions that we all are imagining as some sort of delusion?

https://www.stereophile.com/content/clowns-left-me-jokers-right

celander
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

"Stereo reproduction is an enigma by default."

I don't find stereo enigmatic at all.

"If we have two ears to detect true sound imaging and soundstage, then by default we are deluding ourselves in believing that reproduced sound is a facsimile of the original."

I guess I'm not sure who says a recording is the original live performance. Being a playback recorded version of a performance is obviously not the actual performance. I say that in both a negative and positive way. There are many things a playback version gives us that the actual performance doesn't and the opposite can be true as well. But why people attempt to call the two events the same thing is odd.

MG

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Its no delusion. Whenever I drop something small on the floor first thing I do is stop and listen for it to stop rolling around. Then I go and look and it is always right where I knew it would be by sound alone. When someone walks up to me out of sight I know they are coming, how close and how fast, by sound alone.

The XLO setup CD has a great track where Doug Sax walks around a room talking and clapping and when your system is really well set up you can clearly hear his voice and clapping coming from exactly where he says he is, including as he walks around to the sides and even when he goes behind you!

There are a lot of delusions the OP may well be suffering from but hearing the realistic portrayal of a sound stage is probably not one of them.


celander's avatar
celander OP
1,504 posts
 
It’s often helpful to read the original post, including the cited article, before jumping to conclusions and apparent attacks on my mental health. Lol
celander's avatar
celander OP
1,504 posts
 
Funny how folks skip over the main point of my penultimate post: Original performance is not in stereo, but the reproduced performance is in stereo.

☝🏻That’s the enigma. 
n80
2,133 posts
 
Agree. No one is debating the fact that we have two ears.
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