What is Imaging?

Go to your local Magnepan dealer. Have them set up a pair of 1.7s or 3.7s and position them for ideal setup. Sit in the sweet spot and have them play your favorite music. Listen and observe. It should become very obvious what imaging is, as you will hear a sonic hologram of the performance--where every voice and instrument is positioned in space, and the interrelations among them all.

Sorry, I'm a new convert. Just brought a pair of Magneplanar 1.7s home Saturday and it quickly became my aural virtual reality machine. I sit in the sweet spot and an transported to the performance. You don't so much listen to Maggies as hear *through* them.

I like the word soundscape, but the others aside from the Magneplanar enthusiast have explained it very well and are miraculously in agreement.

So, it is just location and separation, not depth/realism?

Elizabeth,

Since it is difficult to pick out individual voices from a massed choir at a live concert I think this may be difficult to reproduce in a stereo system. Imaging of a single voice, or of a duet, is a different matter. IMO.

Imaging is the ability of your system to convey stable, believable images. Or, as Elizabeth pointed out, a messy one. Either way it's imaging. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise