Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
On a recent thread: http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...ded-crossovers one of several divergent topics from the original topic dove into the discussion of imaging.

Like everything else in this hobby, there are many opinions on how to get great imaging. That said, I'm not even sure we are all taking about the same thing when we discuss imaging.
Based on some of the responses in this very thread, I doubt we all are (talking about the same thing)...

Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
I define imaging as the the speaker's soundstage. In my opinion for there to be imaging you typically do need to have a setup where you can sit at an equidistant vertex of a triangle. I realize for many this is simply not possible. While it is still possible to have a very satisfying musical experience I don't think outstanding imaging will be possible.
100% agreed (bold emphasis mine).

I would add that a true test for the ability to reproduce such an illusion of "soundstage" must start with a recording where natural, low-level acoustical cues of the original recording space are present in the first place. Multi-mike, multi-tracked, artificially pan-potted recordings - such as e.g., The Dark Side of The Moon mentioned in another post in this thread - can certainly sound immersive and impressive in their own right, but they aren't the right tool to ascertain a system's ability to truly "image", in my opinion.

Marco