Is soundstage DEPTH a myth?

@gotolondon2 I agree. Many great answers here. More revelatory than I initially expected. I have a BMC amp and 1 reviewer stated it sounds very flat, he thought that was just how the amp sounded. But when connected with other BMC components the way the amp were designed, soundstage started "shooting out in all directions". I’ve been saving for the BMC ultradac and will be buying it to try soon.

@hypoman I agree, the listening area around the speakers should be ideally empty. One time I had a center channel in the center and just the mere existence of it there degraded the sound. I thought something was sounding weird until I move the center out and realized that was the problem.

About soundstage, I've owned TOTL headphone and I still couldn't notice soundstage. I've clearly sense what's in front of me from front left to front right. I've also heard things up close to my side left and side right. This kinda qualifies as soundstage depth. But when it comes to the front depth, that I haven't clearly heard. 

Simple answer: No.

"About soundstage, I've owned TOTL headphone and I still couldn't notice soundstage. I've clearly sense what's in front of me from front left to front right. I've also heard things up close to my side left and side right. This kinda qualifies as soundstage depth. But when it comes to the front depth, that I haven't clearly heard."

If we agree that soundstage and imaging are at least partially the result of the engineer using constructive and destructive interference to create "peaks and nulls" across the room to create the illusion of a soundstage, wouldn't this be expected of headphones where there can be no interference between the channels let alone some predetermined distance between the speakers that the engineer was listening at?

@gosta I would be happy to list some recordings that have good depth but these only scratch the surface. At audio shows the tracks they play nearly always have great depth because that is one of the things they are trying to demonstrate. Here are a few of my favorites.

Dee Dee Bridgewater - Live in Paris
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Couldn't Stand the Weather (especially Tin Pan Alley)
Jazz at the Pawnshop
Doug MacLeod - There's a Time (or pretty much anything from Reference Recordings)
Janis Siegel - At Home
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side (song)
Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit - Self titled live album
Hugh Masakela - Hope
London Grammar - If You Wait
Paul Simon - Graceland
Sting - Ten Summoners Tales
Malia and Boris Blank - Convergence
The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Dirty Boogie

Regarding my studio recordings, the bands were local to the Portland area and unfortunately none of them made it to the big time. Some of them were very talented though. If you want to hear a few of these tracks you are welcome to PM me with your email address and I'll share a folder with some of my favorite songs.
 

@hypoman 

Visual is a huge part of discerning depth for me, and in general making sense of what I'm hearing. If I can see that I'm in a small room my brain will try to interpret whatever I hear in a way that can fit into that small space. David Greisinger had some binaural recordings on his website that he'd taken in a concert hall. I used his method to calibrate my headphones to my ears and then listened to the recordings. They seemed unremarkable until I also stared at the picture of the orchestra as taken from that seat. The effect was amazing. By looking at the picture I could interpret and make sense of the spacial cues in the recording and the sense of space and depth became very apparent. I really felt like I was there.

@cey 

Really good perception may not be the best thing for listening to recordings.  An ability to relax and suspend one's disbelief might be more helpful. Really good perception will just make it all too obvious that you are listening to 2 speakers that are hitting your head from just 2 specific directions, creating a bunch of weird phase and interference patterns that don't often occur in nature, and mixing the acoustics of a recording space with the acoustics of your listening space. This will all shout FAKE to anyone who's perceptual acuity can't relax a little.