'Holographic Sound Stage?'

Jmbatkh, nailed it. it happens. Years ago I met a local seller who was selling a granite slab. He lived in a fairly small apartment with an odd shaped room. His room was tweaked out, however. He played an Annie Lenox CD, the track "why?". It was like I was in the middle of the performance. Images were captured within proper space.

Years later, I purchased his speakers he was using. He is now a writer for Stereophile. Even with those speakers, I have not yet been able to reproduce that sound he had in my house. I have been what they say "chasing the dragon" since then.

The one and only time I heard a holographic presentation was at Elliot Midwood's place (the owner of Acoutic Image). It was at his house and he demo'd some entry level Audio Phyisics (?) speakers on an all tube set up. The speakers were rather far apart since looking straight ahead afforded me only a peripheral view of them. Also, the speakers were next to the walls, just inside, which opened onto another room behind them.

To say my jaw dropped was an understatement. Each and every musician had his and her own space, front to back, side to side, with specific boundaries, enough to qualify as ghostly. At first, I resisted the urge to get up and walk around the phantom images but then submitted and proceeded to walk around the players. As I neared them, they somewhat collapsed and reformed as I returned to my seat.

Quite the parlor trick and I've yet to experience it again.

The room holds all the cards should you want to recreate this effect and from what I've seen and read, no one uses this approach when designing a listening room. I'm sure there are other ways to do it but this is the only one I've witnessed.

All the best,
Nonoise

I think the most holographic sound stage I've ever heard was on the Infinity IRS. If you'd heard it you'd know exactly why people refer to it as holographic -- it's as if you could walk between the instruments, so precisely are the delineated in three dimensional space.

Is it realistic? That's another question entirely. Most of the live acoustical music I've heard didn't image that way. The locations of the instruments are more diffuse, more a cloud than a point, and there was no sense of space between them. And sometimes instruments don't even come from where they should, e.g., if you close your eyes at Carnegie Hall it can sound as if some instruments are coming from the proscenium arch (depending on seating angles).

The sound Jmbatkh is unnatural in the real world. I've been to hundreds of live shows and the degree of depth and separation he describes just doesn't occur in live music. The brain doesn't process live music in such a way, because the sound waves are hitting the ears at roughly the same time. Holographic sound such as Jmbatkh is largely the result of sound processing, speaker design and room effects.

@ Luvs2listen, your 5.3.13 post hit the nail on the head. It is not a trick. It happens when things are setup correctly. Tara Labs Air 1 cable helped my system to achieve holographic presentation of the music with good recordings. I think that the room does play a big role in this also because now I don't want to leave it!!! LOL!.