@Eric>
A subject my posts touch on often is whether pin point imaging is desirable, or natural.
blindjim>
desirable?
of course!
natural?
many factors affect that out come.
imaging intimates a couple things, first off is harmonic integrity and thereafter geographical identification of the musicians within the sound field/venue, and for some, the atmosphere or physical attributes of the venue itself.
Which version of imaging is being taken to task here? geographic localization, or harmonic integrity?
I’ll presume the former.
precise = marked by exactness and accuracy of expression and detail.
pin point adj. to fix, determine or identify with precision
although these definitions are not the whole shooting match when the job of speakers is concerned, it does define their basic criterion during their performance.
recreating localized imaging as has been said already is the predominate result of how the venue was miked and or how the studio demo was thereafter processed or mixed down.
speakers is ignert, but they ain’t stupid! you can’t fix stupid but you can fix ignert, .
the electrical signal educates the speakers to what ever level the speaker’s aptitude will allow.
many though not all speakers can demonstrate very good imaging IF the upstream components and room are well accomplished.
this is why I profess spending more on the electronics than on the speakers usually. especially when the ‘ducket’ bucket only has so many frog skins in it.
sit in the front few rows of any acoustic show/concert, and if you can not distinguish who and where singers or musicians are on the stage, then save your concert going money and stay home.
alternatively if you are at the rear of the venue/hall, it becomes a tuffer task, unless of course you can actually see the performers. together, the visual and audible information locates ‘precisely’ the artists.
at school or church you can pick out your kids voice, or some other’s in the choir or on the stage, can’t you?
even with orchestras one can readily fix where the strings, brass, reeds, etc., are set.
I suppose at WoodStock 50 years ago this week, if you were standing or stumbling way on back from the stage, it was all a mono affair.
so why can’t we expect speakers to do the same provided we’ve done our jobs and thoughtfully considered for our speakers, their room, positioning, their electronics, and of course, the media itself?
the design philosophy of any loudspeaker build should be to create a system which emmulates as closely as possible harmonic integrity, instrument localization, as given by the source, and the chosen media and dependant on the mixing process when it was mastered in as listenable a fashion as possible.
that said, I’ve yet to hear or own a system which I can undeniably state that from listening to a recording, I can ‘precisely’ locate everything within the concert including what material is making up the venue’s walls, curtains, width and or depth of the stage, etc., as some reviewers seem to enjoy accounting from time to time.
perhaps the only way to actually gain such insight is to be there during that recording, and hopefully have a perfect auditory and otherwise, memory along with an outstanding uber performing audio rig.
imaging, both localized and harmonic, is the thread which connects the demonstration together propelling it to greater heights of enjoyment for many in this hobby. when a recording combines positioning information, and tonal accuracy the depiction is considered excellent, but it all lives or dies with the recording itself and how much attention and effort went into its production.
how the recorded media content is going to be conveyed is another crucial responsibility for the speaker system designer to develop.
RE Mr. Allison
sounds to me like Mr. Allison is making an argument for how he has chosen to build speakers or for his own philosophy for listening to them. His position is a more relaxed perspective on designing speakers as it seems to lower the bar for the build.
physically locating the components of any musical production is part and parcel a result. how well it was rendered depends on numerous concerns, yet the source media is the primary ‘person of interest’ in unraveling the soundstage’ conundrum.
if a system does not image well, on both sides of that coin, I lose interest quickly