Soundstage

[AJSki2fly]

Personally I have always found soundstage and imaging of instruments very important to my listening experience for me. A recording that gives good instrument separation and definition and placement I always find more enjoyable than one that presents a rather flat soundscape. A rather good example of this is Paul McCartney's - Press to Play album, for each track there is a diagram showing the placement of each instrument and voices, my system reflects this quite well if I sit in the listening sweet spot. Most of Alan Parson's Project album are well engineered and do so very well.

Some live recordings I find quite frustrating when the soundstage is quiet flat and it seems to be just a wall of sound, I presume this is due to the recording being taken straight from the mixing desk and then not re-mixed properly for the cutting of the record/CD etc.

[Gaz]

This clip answers your question at around 5 mins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI7DA886-9o

Not really, it doesn't explain how a speaker can project sound backwards.
Speakers project sound forwards so how can what he says possibly be correct?

[Macca]

The speaker doesn't really project sound backwards, it's a combination of the panning and the differences in level between the various tracks on the recording that create the illusion of a 3 dimensional space behind, above and to the sides of the speakers. It's what your brain creates from the various cues set up by this method.

Or in the case of an acoustic recording the reflections from the boundaries of the recording space being captured by the mics, again your brain will use these to create the impression.

The sound isn't actually moving backwards from the speakers, it is moving forward into your ears and being processed by your brain. Only then does it seem like the sound is originating behind the speakers.

[Mixc]

The way i see it is that if your system is setup correctly and you play a good recording the sound presented fools you into the perception of a 3D space.
If you close your eyes and listen (disabling one of your senses), you are presented with information that your brain tries to make sense of by creating a mental picture or image
This image is formed using the timing of the sound produced by the speaker, both direct and reflected, the room shape, decor, furniture placement, speaker position, seating position etc. all come into play.

Try to think of the air as water and the sound as ripples/waves, when the waves from each speaker meet they crash together and dependent on phase /frequency will either add together or cancel each other, your ears pick up on this and the picture is formed.

I hope im not rambling...and that some of this make sense to someone else ;o)

[Gaz]

This is what I was getting at, as it is all interpretations surely it's fair to say that everybody interprets the "imagined" image differently?

Somebody earlier referred to an album that actually lists instrument placement, what intrigues me is if you got 100 people and asked them to listen to a track from that album, on the same system in the same room, and place the instruments how many would get it right and how many variations would there be?

Experiment for a bake-off anybody?

[Yomanze]

You’d all have to use the same listening chair of course, and be at the same ear height. It’d be like audiophile musical chairs with booster seats. D


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[goraman]

The speaker doesn't really project sound backwards, it's a combination of the panning and the differences in level between the various tracks on the recording that create the illusion of a 3 dimensional space behind, above and to the sides of the speakers. It's what your brain creates from the various cues set up by this method.

Or in the case of an acoustic recording the reflections from the boundaries of the recording space being captured by the mics, again your brain will use these to create the impression.

The sound isn't actually moving backwards from the speakers, it is moving forward into your ears and being processed by your brain. Only then does it seem like the sound is originating behind the speakers.

Martin, some do Electrostatic panels, Radials and open baffle.
Some so much you need a sally or curtains. I had a large pair of Sound Labs that had to be out 4 ft. from the walls for that reason.
Some Snells and Bose even had rear facing drivers ,silly but true.

[GrahamS]

Depends on the recording: on a few the soloist can apper to be slightly in front of the plane of the speakers.

But in general most of the soundstage should appear to lay behind the speakers. And the width of the soundstage can, and often will, extend beyond the speakers.

As the late Peter Walker of Quad said "somewhere just beyond the plane of the speakers, the walls of your listening room should disappear and be replaced by those of the auditorium ".

A lot has to do with the phasing of the various elements in a recording as well.

[Macca]

Martin, some do Electrostatic panels, Radials and open baffle.
Some so much you need a sally or curtains. I had a large pair of Sound Labs that had to be out 4 ft. from the walls for that reason.
Some Snells and Bose even had rear facing drivers ,silly but true.

my point was that even the rear wave must bounce back to you for you to hear it. Or it cancels the front wave, either way the sound has to travel towards you at some point for you to hear it, it isn't just doing it's own thing round the back of the speakers.

[Light Dependant Resistor]

The JR149 is a speaker that seems to get rear radiation correct, sound behind the cabinet see's a round surface
so would appear to assist the sound there to continue without undue reflection and I think to be far more accurate,
as far as reflected sound goes.