What is sound-staging?

deepee99 wrote:
Zeppelin well? Now I'm sitting on my fingers Oxymoron to follow.

Remind me not to ever shake hands with you.

While he's not a huge fan of tubes, he has good insights and advice on this and other things audio...

https://www.psaudio.com/askpaul/disappearing-speakers/

Speaking of Paul McG, he expressed something I've recently experienced myself when I got meself a nice REL subwoofer, The REL is great in that it allows one to use it as a "true" sub - i.e. one may set the low-pass (12db/octave shelf) as low as 24 cps (!!!). This allows one to effect a seamless transition between the mains lows and the "true" sub frequencies; in my case, the Tyler Halo2s do a great job down to around 42 cycles, then gently roll off until the bass is all-but-inaudible below 30. So I start the roll-off at 26 or 27 - very low, lower than the vast majority of subs will allow.
What does this have to do with soundstage? Well, to my delight, it appears that a nice chunk of the necessary spatial illusion comes from subliminal (not even necessarily musical) cues at the lowest end of the low end. So adding a sub not only allows me to enjoy organ pedals and the like, but actually enhances the soundstage even when there's no "music" down there. But there IS important INFORMATION, such as the very faint movement of air itself which needs to be FELT in order to complete the illusion of space. Thus Also Sprach Paul McGowan.

"necessary spatial illusion comes from subliminal (not even necessarily musical) cues at the lowest end of the low end."
Wow, college days showing. Dr. Kently?

I'm a self-taught pedant. Never made it past soph(istry). The only Doctorate I hold is less than, and equal to, B.S.

Kentley wrote:I'm a self-taught pedant. Never made it past soph(istry). The only Doctorate I hold is less than, and equal to, B.S.

BS Bull-
MS More-
PhD (Piled higher and Deeper).

As to the low end and sound-stage, this makes perfect sense. Even if the signal is 'non-directional' and 'not really music', it is information that vastly increases the size of the stage based on the amount of signal there is.

Now, to my everlasting shame, I own and maintain one of these little devices:

https://www.hifiengine.com/files/images/Advent%20Model%20500%20SoundSpace%20Control.jpg

This is a full-digital time-delay system that uses sum/difference information in creating the 'rear' channels as well as directly injection front signal at some designed delay to mimic reflected sound. Yankee Stadium, anyone? Is this high-fidelity? Not hardly. But, it can be a LOT of fun. And if used judiciously with a decent equalizer, some truly impressive/offensive sounds are possible. Point being that at a more modest level, the more (accurate) information available to the listener, the more the listener will be able to 'build' a virtual sound stage.

I was reading about this recently, some things I picked up to recreate good sound stage and imaging you also must slow down the reflections given off by your speakers. If you can slow the reflections from your speakers down lower than the rate of reflection in the musical recording it will help recreate the illusion your in the room with the musicians even more.

I purchased some cheap acoustic panels to test and was blown away by the difference. Soundstage instantly became substantially more separated and deeper. Have a couple of bass traps on the way now.