3-Dimensional Soundstage

The ability to hear depth within a stereo image is one of the truly groovy, addictive aspects of high-end audio. To experience it, though, (1) your system needs to be a pretty good one, (2) your speakers need to be symmetrically placed within your listening room, and (3) you yourself need to be the third point in a symmetrically consistent triangle with the speakers being the other two. The recording itself.needs to have been recorded much the same way...though it might be said that modern electronic trickery can also go a long way in creating the illusion.

Find a copy of Holst The Planets with Sir Adrian Boult conducting The New Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus (EMI ASD 2301). If your system doesn't reproduce the astonishingly-deep soundstage captured by EMI's engineers, you need a better system. ;-)

The first time I heard the LP I was flabbergasted; the percussion instruments at the back of the orchestra sounded further away than was the wall behind the Magneplanar Tympani loudspeakers. And the percussion section was obviously on a riser; the delicate sound of the triangle floated above the rest of the orchestra. Height information!

With many classical recordings, on my system it sounds as if much of the orchestra is located behind/beyond the wall behind the speakers.  Studio recordings can be engineered in a number of different ways.  All I know is that I have some pop/rock CDs where, for instance, it definitely sounds as if the bass guitar or the drums are well behind the lead singer.

@dhite71 - If you think of how we "percieve space" from sound e.g. live music...

• think about the various artists are spaced on the stage
• as the sound of each instument reaches our ears, our brains interpret two slightly different sounds
  • one ear hears a slightly louder sound
    • which provides us with the ability to
      • assess the location of the artist in the ’left to right’ plane
    • when both ears hear a slightly louder sound we can
      • assess the location of the artist/instrument (front to back) in relation to other artists/insrtuments
• however those sounds are also slightly out of phase
  • it is the phase that provides that final piece of the puzzle
  • the various phase differences between what the left and right ears actually allows the brain to build a more accurate representation of the live performance in relation to "our location" within the venue
    • so if we are located to the side we build a totally diffeent image to that of a person having a more central location
  • Also, when we listen to a recodring, the image may or may not be confined to the boundaries of our listening room.
    • i.e. provided we have good system in a perfect listening environment

The sound engineers in the recording studio can manupulate EVERY aspect of a recording

• each instrument and artist are recorded on their own track
• the signals can be manipulated, such that the "sounds" of each track can be "placed" with great precision in any part of the resulting image in left/right and front/back planes
• and using the subtle differences between what our left and right ears will eventualy hear, by adjusting volume and phase differences between the left and right channels - they can build a pretty convincing "image"
• these days, even "venue acoustics" i.e. those little echoes and reverberations generated by music being played in a venue, can be emulated, to achieve a more relaistic reproduction.

When playing back a recording, better systems will take the recorded signals in the left and right channels and reproduce them with an amazing degree of accuracy, such that, it convices our brain that we are in the venue where the recording took place OR in the "vitual venue" as created by the very best sound engineers.

The really great thing about today’s electronics is that you do not have to have the very best components to get a reasonably realistic sounding image.

• but you do need to have pretty darn good cables!
• because cables actually play a significant role in conveying those incredibly detailed signals while maintaining the ever so subtle variances in phase between left and right channels
• thus allowing the components to build that amazing image

Every cable in a system will impact sound quality in some way.and it isn’t until you start using excellent cables that you will be able to hear very noticeable improvements in imaging.

Those mega expensive systems you hear at audio shows and at those high end audio stores all have excellent cables.

Hope that helps - Steve

Great post....

I will only add a remark about cables...

Relatively good but not too much costly cables will do... Why?

Because most of all acoustical cues cannot be rendered audible in a badly treeated and controlled room ...

Then cables are important to gain the better information possible but there exist aminimal threshold of information quality without paying many thousand dollars for cables  then it is irrational and useless to pay more for cable  than to  room acoustic...

Dont throw too much money on cables, more on acoustic...

My cables are basic good relatively low cost one...Not cheap one at all, but low cost...I begin to listen ALL imaging, soundstaging, timbre naturalness etc AFTER acoustic treatment and control...A huge difference, i repeat : HUGE....

Too much money on cables and nothing to acoustic is a lost of money...

Every cable in a system will impact sound quality in some way.and it isn’t until you start using excellent cables that you will be able to hear very noticeable improvements in imaging.