Jeffery,
IMO, I feel that your statements are not true! From whatever little I know, "imaging" of speaker defines how balanced the sound volume is from each speaker. If the speakers image well then the soundstage gets re-created more correctly vs. incorrectly w.r.t. the original music event that was recorded. If the singer is in the center in the "live" event (concert or studio), it gets re-created in the center, if the violin is on the left, then that gets re-created on the left, etc, etc *IF* speakers image well. Most recordings assume the listener would have sat in the center of a concert hall or in the center of a studio recording so that instruments are more or less evenly spaced in front. If the speakers do not image well, the soundstage gets skewed to the one having more sound volume. You could consider that you bought a ticket on the left orch. or right orch side but it feels uncomfortable in a home stereo system to have the soundstage skewed left or right.
In a live concert/performance there is pinpoint imaging, of course. Symphonies are prime examples (not Swan Lake as you are watching ballet & the orch. is in the orch pit!) - as TWL mentioned, it is easy to pick-up the location of the soloist, the drums, violins & wind instruments if one closes one's eyes. It is also easy to perceive that the soloist is in front & that the drums are behind. Maybe you have never cared to take note of these things in a live event because you are concentrating more on the music itself. IMO, nothing wrong there at all! Many people like to hear music & couldn't care much about soundstage width & depth or pin-point imaging, etc, etc. You could be such a person perhaps? I'm afraid that all these technical terms do exist in live music. What stereo systems seem to compromise is how the instruments reverberate & decay in the concert hall & how they create a certain ambience. This gap seems definitive - closing with better & better equipment - but still very much there.
IMO, I feel that your statements are not true! From whatever little I know, "imaging" of speaker defines how balanced the sound volume is from each speaker. If the speakers image well then the soundstage gets re-created more correctly vs. incorrectly w.r.t. the original music event that was recorded. If the singer is in the center in the "live" event (concert or studio), it gets re-created in the center, if the violin is on the left, then that gets re-created on the left, etc, etc *IF* speakers image well. Most recordings assume the listener would have sat in the center of a concert hall or in the center of a studio recording so that instruments are more or less evenly spaced in front. If the speakers do not image well, the soundstage gets skewed to the one having more sound volume. You could consider that you bought a ticket on the left orch. or right orch side but it feels uncomfortable in a home stereo system to have the soundstage skewed left or right.
In a live concert/performance there is pinpoint imaging, of course. Symphonies are prime examples (not Swan Lake as you are watching ballet & the orch. is in the orch pit!) - as TWL mentioned, it is easy to pick-up the location of the soloist, the drums, violins & wind instruments if one closes one's eyes. It is also easy to perceive that the soloist is in front & that the drums are behind. Maybe you have never cared to take note of these things in a live event because you are concentrating more on the music itself. IMO, nothing wrong there at all! Many people like to hear music & couldn't care much about soundstage width & depth or pin-point imaging, etc, etc. You could be such a person perhaps? I'm afraid that all these technical terms do exist in live music. What stereo systems seem to compromise is how the instruments reverberate & decay in the concert hall & how they create a certain ambience. This gap seems definitive - closing with better & better equipment - but still very much there.