I cannot give a technical explanation, but I definitely have experienced a soundstage. My listening room is untreated, but filled with soft furniture, carpet and drapes. I stream music using McIntosh solid state electronics and Klipsch La Scala speakers. It is not the same with all recordings. Some of the best have been old recordings from the 1950's as well as newly issued material. At its best, the music comes from each side, above and behind me, and the speakers "disappear." I have even experienced a soundstage with headphones. I recall a Tony Scott recording where the clarinet clearly "appeared" from across the room. I speculate that it involves the quality of the recording and the interplay between my ears and brain. The soundstage also expands after listening for a while, which reinforces my speculation that the brain becomes acclimated to the sound, and then produces the soundstage.
Soundstage and image height, does it exist?
On another site, there is a discussion on soundstage, and there are a few people clamming, that, since there is no vertical information encoded on stereo recordings, that soundstage height does not actually exist. It is a product of our minds filling in missing information.
Are they correct?
Please explain your position, with as much technical details as you feel needed.
- ...
- 63 posts total
As has been noted already, everyone knows that their speakers, no matter the design, can project an image in the center, where there is no driver. Obviously, speakers radiate sound: to the left, the right, above and below. Why would this not create an image above, just as it does to the left and right, assuming the ceiling is high enough to allow for it? If you want to test this dimension of the stereo image, acquire Northwestern's LEDR recording. It's available free online, but is also on one of the Chesky jazz samplers. Here's a link to a Stereophile review of it: https://www.stereophile.com/features/772/index.html Finally, riley84 asks why anyone would be interested in anyone else's "opinion" in such matters, and was accused of "arrogance" as a result. This doesn't look arrogant to me; quite the contrary, in fact: live and let live. But I still find riley's question naive. OF COURSE we care about others' opinions regarding audio; that's what this forum exists to disseminate! More: I expect those opinions to be backed up by either evidence or argument. I visit this forum for tips on how to improve my system. I'll try those tips which are defended convincingly. Same is true in just about anything else ("life partners," "friends"...). We live among others, some of whom seem to us to be on the right track, others not so much. For me, I'm open-minded, but I want reasons to believe. |
In my 50+ years of playing this "game" I have found that there certainly is height information that is being processed by your brain, albeit a phantom, as is the center channel. Moreover, to my ears this is very recording dependent, acoustic guitar and singer I prefer not to hear them on the ceiling as that is outside of my live experience. Large orchestral pieces "should" sound like you're in a proper theater setting. At about three minutes into Steely Dan Aja there is a police whistle, on my rig it actually sounds like it is outside and across the street. YMMV. Regards, barts |
As many of you know the visual center of your brain uses a ton of "CPU cycles" to recreate what we perceive as our own reality. When you take that processing load off your brain as a matter of course it uses whatever input is left and draws on past visual input to complete the picture. That is why I mostly listen with the lights off and my eyes closed. I suspect many of you 'philes do the same thing. Regards, barts |
This series of tests does exactly what the OP is looking for.
Online LEDR™ Sound Test | Listening Environment Diagnostic Recording Test (audiocheck.net) |
- 63 posts total