Detlof, I have been to many concert presentations at the University auditorium which is useless unless you sit in the first two rows center. It is an electronic reverb hall and is awful. I have been is several symphonic halls but have no recordings from any. I did some recordings of big jazz presentations at Florida State Un. and was there, of course. I no longer have a tape machine, but do have recordings of the North Texas Jazz band and was present at one of these. Here I did hear actually better presentation than I heard from my left side seat.
I have also heard many small group un-amplified sessions and have many near-field records done in such a configuration.
What I am talking about, however, is a very precise location on the sound stage both left and right but also in depth. Plus a very sharp leading edge that startles you as is the case in real-life. Plus a top end that shimmers, especially on high-hat and brass bites. Finally, the speakers are gone and you are enveloped in the sound stage.
What Feil is ragging on about in his characteristic way is that the secret of the H-Cat circuit is a Doppler correction that keeps all frequencies emerging at the same speed.