Immersive Audio and How to Achieve It

@kota1:

I can appreciate what you’re driving at: the sensation of sound from everywhere is enticing.  However, I think you’ve mistaken the intent of such systems.  Surround isn’t necessarily to immerse or envelope, or engulf a listener.  The original, (and I believe still), intent was to recreate the sounds projected from a scene consisting of elements that are placed in areas requiring those sound signatures (AKA, a helicopter fly-over, or a fast-approaching car coming up from the rear.  But as for music, the band, orchestra, fiddle player, torch singer, is IN FRONT of you.  Roger Waters may love hearing his guitar reverberate around the room, but that is a sound effect that doesn’t require Atmos, just walls and ceilings in a good hall, or room.  Finally, I feel “immersed” in music that is well-produced, and frankly, which engages me.  All the sonic tricks in the book, including floating drum kits and saxophones on the ceiling, can’t make me like bad music.  I have a 7.2 SOTA  system for films and TV.  But my jewel is my  (near) SOTA 2.2 stereo music system.  I’ll leave it at that.

"100% of music listeners prefer live music to recorded playback..."

I certainly don’t.

My second system is a traditional 5.1 surround sound.  It wouldn’t meet the criteria for immersive by today’s standards, I guess.  I would like to experiment with a true Atmos setup.  However I have a drop ceiling and I just can’t see using ceiling speakers at this relatively low height, and I would need a new processor or AVR.

And I might sell the house in a couple of years as we downsize, and I just can’t see investing in a system that may have a short lifespan.  However I root those of you who do so on.

  I also disagree with the premise in the OPs first paragraph.  I choose my seats at the Chicago Symphony with care and could care less about moving around and dancing 

OP   100% of music listeners prefer live music to recorded playback,

Agree. The live/original music is always better than the reproduced audio music.

OP    100% of music listeners prefer live music to recorded playback, why? A live performance "immerses" you and frees you up to move around the room, the dance floor and still be immersed. 

The immersive sound is a surround sound term and means you are in the action. The immersive sound is more effect than the quality of the sound. The live music or the original music is not always immersive.

The purpose of hi-end audio is being able to faithfully reproduce the original music. The hi-end audio aims for more realistic reproduced sound than un-real wrapping around sound. The live music or the original music is not always immersive. The quality of the sound is more important in hi-end audio.

OP   "I am saying that everyone prefers a live performance over a recording of a live performance, period".

Yes. Everyone prefers a live performance (real live music) over the reproduced audio music. The original music is always cleanest, smoothest, and the most musical. However, we can't be in live performance always. So, we listen recordings (reproduction audio).

Alex/Wavetouch

I’m old school, I’ll take a great soundstage over surround sound any day!