08-Apr-2019, 00:10
I'd take a different perspective to Archimago on this topic.
Soundstage and imaging are unavoidable once you move from mono with a single speaker to a 2 channel system with 2 discrete non-identical channels of audio and 2 separate speakers. You can't avoid a soundstage and imaging once that decision is made.
What the recording does is to determine, by creating and fixing the difference in content of the 2 channels, just what the soundstage and imaging possibilities for the recording are. What the equipment and setup does is to determine which one of an infinite number of possibilities in soundstage and imaging the listener will hear.
When we can choose to put both of our speakers side by side touching each other directly in front of us and reduce what we hear to mono, it's pretty obvious that whether or not it sounds like it has a wide soundstage or has pinpoint placement of a diffuse sound or whatever isn't solely or even primarily due to the choices made in the making of the recording. If the engineer's choices were the prime determinant we wouldn't be able to nullify them with setup choices yet we can nullify the engineer's choices. The choices we make in relation to our equipment and setup are just as critical as the choices the recording engineer makes.
The results aren't decided to a large extent before we get to hear them on our systems. We play just as big a part in the result as the engineer does. The engineer gives us something to work with, but we decide what we do with what the engineer gives us. What we do with it is just as critical to the end result as what we're given to work with.
Soundstage and imaging are unavoidable once you move from mono with a single speaker to a 2 channel system with 2 discrete non-identical channels of audio and 2 separate speakers. You can't avoid a soundstage and imaging once that decision is made.
What the recording does is to determine, by creating and fixing the difference in content of the 2 channels, just what the soundstage and imaging possibilities for the recording are. What the equipment and setup does is to determine which one of an infinite number of possibilities in soundstage and imaging the listener will hear.
When we can choose to put both of our speakers side by side touching each other directly in front of us and reduce what we hear to mono, it's pretty obvious that whether or not it sounds like it has a wide soundstage or has pinpoint placement of a diffuse sound or whatever isn't solely or even primarily due to the choices made in the making of the recording. If the engineer's choices were the prime determinant we wouldn't be able to nullify them with setup choices yet we can nullify the engineer's choices. The choices we make in relation to our equipment and setup are just as critical as the choices the recording engineer makes.
The results aren't decided to a large extent before we get to hear them on our systems. We play just as big a part in the result as the engineer does. The engineer gives us something to work with, but we decide what we do with what the engineer gives us. What we do with it is just as critical to the end result as what we're given to work with.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
