OK - stand by for a certain ammount of backpeddaling
:
In my OP I stated that the image was of little interest (Exact words "I don't care..."). I also stated that:
A) "I also like to be "in the music" rather than looking in it."
and
B) "Playing from a single speaker is less enjoyable than playing from two - even if the sound is mono"
I said way back there <--- somewhere that I'd try testing some stereo to mono coversion if I could find a way to do it. I found that Macs have an accessibility option to convert all stereo sound to mono, so I tried that tonight.
Statement A still stands - I like a feeling of being in/surrounded by the music.
It turns out that statement B is complete bobbins. If I listen to a mono signal from two speakers, I get a phantom center, and it feels identical to listening from a single speaker. I lose all sense of being immersed in the music.
So it would seem that at least the width of the soundfield is important to me even if the ability to locate instruments is not.**
**which brings me to a tiny tiny bit more of a reverse pedal.
As a direct result of this thread I've been listening intenetly for the stereo image. Well....errr.....I quite like it.
I've just changed my vote from "Meh" to "Nice to have"