Disturbing "Sonic Trend" showing up on SOTA audio

I think both schools of sound are represented. Some state of the art is still lush and convincing sounding, such as my Tannoy's with set amplification. But I guess I agree most mainstream is as you described. Someone above had a good comment that gave me a chuckle and although I find it has a lot of truth. Something about you needing to stop listening to solid-state.

Hi Learsfool, sorry for the confusion. Ear bleeding can be the result of a ruptured eardrum which can be caused by sound, albeit nothing you are ever likely to hear in a symphony hall. Other hearing problems can be caused by heights such as the changing of the air pressure on the eardrum that you experience when flying. Your ear pops as the pressure in your inner ear equalizes with the exterior air pressure. I may be the only person who uses this term, and inappropriately so perhaps. I most often I use it to describe the uppermost seating in large stadiums at sporting events where you may almost have to use binoculars to see the game. So yes, I was referring to the most remote/highest seats in a hall. A location that maximizes the affect of reflected sound, and can unduly emphasize/minimize parts of the frequency response, unfavorably.

When in my post I referred to 'imaging' for audiophiles, I was only trying to find a seat location where hall sounds had the least influence and direct sounds had the most and might create an affect that audiophiles might consider great imaging, i.e. location/specificity of instruments. Balance, not so much perhaps.

Thanks for the clarification, Newbee. As I said in my previous post, in a concert hall, you should be able to close your eyes and still listen and be able to tell where different instruments are located on the stage. It may be slightly easier to do this in some places in the hall than others, but honestly I have never thought about this- one should be able to tell that regardless of where one sits in the hall. An inability to do this would say much more about one's ears than the design of the hall, reflections, etc.

I'd like to offer some observations re the pinpoint imaging issue. I don't
mean to take liberties with what Schubert and Learsfool are meaning to
say, and please correct me if I'm wrong; but, I think that there really is no
disagreement. To me, as concerns audio, there is much more to
"imaging" than precise and stable localization; or, at least, there
should be. I think that what Schubert refers to as "pinpoint"
imaging from a stereo system is a distortion of what is heard live due in part
to the absence of information which many of even the "best"
components can't capture/reproduce. This low level information is what
gives music much of its nuance and is part of each instrument's (or voice)
harmonic envelope. Good composers are very conscious of this and
sometimes make orchestration choices with those considerations in mind.
They don't necessarily think of a clarinet sounding completely separate
from the oboe; instead they may consider how the clarinet's harmonic
envelope will blend with the oboe's and create a unique color. This
harmonic envelope is a kind of sonic glue that connects performers in the
performance space, and allows for what players sometimes refer to as
"getting inside each other's sound". In audio the so called, and
coveted, "black spaces" between sonic images can create an
illusion of instrumental separation; however, in live music those spaces are
filled with sonic stuff that gives music complexity, nuance and feeling. As
Learsfool correctly points out the localization is there, but there is also
much more information in the spaces between the instruments which can
create the illusion of less pinpoint imaging.

Frogman, thats exactly what I meant and lacking your knowledge did not say so.

If you do not know what a coherent sound sounds like you are unlikely to buy a coherent speaker .