Quote Originally Posted by E-Stat View Post
I've never heard a single live, unamplified instrument or concert that sounded as if it emanated from a point in space. Everything I've ever heard comes from an acoustic space ranging from a couple of feet wide (solo guitar) to over a hundred (symphony).


Now that does relate to my experience which is why I prefer that approach. A single pebble in the pond.
The latter is the former it starts from a single point and radiates out - UHF magazine describes it well in their book which I don't have with me. The single driver point in space as the originator which ideally is a very small speaker with one driver. If you stood 50 feet from the guitar then your perception would not be that it is 2 feet wide - that perception only exists if you were playing the instrument or very close to it. The live comparison is an odd one to me since the room acoustics of the recording is different than the home which would be of varying sizes. Further many live symphonies have all of the instruments in a pit - there is no stage awareness to such an even they're lumped together - the spatial cues will also be hugely dependent on your seat. Amplified events are a non starter for spatial cues since it comes out of loudspeakers place on the stage which differs from concert to concert. (symphonies differ from venue to venue as well).

It is far simpler to make instrumental comparisons - there really is no point in worrying about symphony perception of staging if you do not know exactly where all of the instruments were at the time of the recording. Unless there is a seating plan that comes with the CD that states that Joe the Violinist was 18 feet to the left of center and the oboe is in the middle and the French horn over on the right and there were three french horns and one bassoon in the back 4 feet then it winds up being - whichever is biggest will be deemed best by the listener - when biggest may in fact be completely wrong.

That's why I prefer getting the instrument sound down first. Doesn't matter where it is if the instrument itself doesn't sound real. Transients, Decay, tone, timbre, dynamics, and the sound pressure to make it have that live visceral sensation. I liked Soundhounds demo of a speaker I was listening to. There is a high 6 foot partition in the middle of the room. A woman who could not see over the partition popped her head around and was stunned that it was not someone actually playing a piano. That is what it ought to be able to do. Granted the recording needs to be up to it but a lot are.