pragmus and anyone else who thinks stereo systems should image outside of the loudspeakers:
You ability to determine where a sound is coming from depends mostly on where the loudest sound in coming from and the delay between getting to one ear to the other. If you do not agree with this you can stop right here.
The volume of the sound coming from a point source speaker decays at the cube of the distance. If you do not agree with this you can also exit here.
lets set up two microphones each one connected to it's own speaker in another room 10 feet apart left and right. I'm going to have a trumpet player walk up to the left channel microphone and play a tune. The listener in the next room is going to hear the trumpet coming from the left channel speaker and maybe a tiny bit from the right channel speaker as the right channel mic is on and it will pick up the trumpet but at a much lower level. In short you hear the trumpet coming from the left channel speaker directly and not to either side because the sound to either side drops of at the cube of the distance and you only hear the trumpet coming from the loudest source which is directly from the speaker. The same will be true in opposite if the trumpet is played into the right channel mic. If I put the mics together and play into both on them the trumpet is going to appear as if were coming out of thin air directly between the speakers. You can read her for the theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereophonic_sound
Never does the sound come from beyond the speakers and this holds for an entire symphony orchestra. If a sound is coming from outside the speakers there are only three ways that can happen. 1st is there is another speaker such as a surround sound set up playing. Next is a studio phasing trick where you get cancelation in front of the loudest source throwing the sound out to the side like Roger Waters does on Amused to Death. Last is the speaker is right next to a wall and the first reflection is loud enough to move an instrument beyond the speaker. This is a distortion as I pointed out earlier. All first reflections should be dampened so this does not happen. Imaging outside the speakers is a sign of poor room control. The ambiance of a recording can be outside the speakers as it is a product of late reflections but that is it.
You ability to determine where a sound is coming from depends mostly on where the loudest sound in coming from and the delay between getting to one ear to the other. If you do not agree with this you can stop right here.
The volume of the sound coming from a point source speaker decays at the cube of the distance. If you do not agree with this you can also exit here.
lets set up two microphones each one connected to it's own speaker in another room 10 feet apart left and right. I'm going to have a trumpet player walk up to the left channel microphone and play a tune. The listener in the next room is going to hear the trumpet coming from the left channel speaker and maybe a tiny bit from the right channel speaker as the right channel mic is on and it will pick up the trumpet but at a much lower level. In short you hear the trumpet coming from the left channel speaker directly and not to either side because the sound to either side drops of at the cube of the distance and you only hear the trumpet coming from the loudest source which is directly from the speaker. The same will be true in opposite if the trumpet is played into the right channel mic. If I put the mics together and play into both on them the trumpet is going to appear as if were coming out of thin air directly between the speakers. You can read her for the theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereophonic_sound
Never does the sound come from beyond the speakers and this holds for an entire symphony orchestra. If a sound is coming from outside the speakers there are only three ways that can happen. 1st is there is another speaker such as a surround sound set up playing. Next is a studio phasing trick where you get cancelation in front of the loudest source throwing the sound out to the side like Roger Waters does on Amused to Death. Last is the speaker is right next to a wall and the first reflection is loud enough to move an instrument beyond the speaker. This is a distortion as I pointed out earlier. All first reflections should be dampened so this does not happen. Imaging outside the speakers is a sign of poor room control. The ambiance of a recording can be outside the speakers as it is a product of late reflections but that is it.