I don't care about stereo imaging - am I alone. (Poll)

[sound67]

I don't agree. And it's not odd either. The orchestra is meant to produce a "together" sound in most instances, save for some avantgarde pieces that experiment with spatial effects.

 

[krabapple]

Since I'm listening mostly to classical music, the stereo image hardly matters. If those recordings were mono I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. There's no cymbal crash coming from the left or a flute solo from the right - it all fuses into one "together" sound.

er...huh?

Violins on left, basses on right seems pretty consistently solid to me on decent orchestra recordings.

Then there's the occasional works that actually emphasize instrumental group placement by rapid 'panning' (hocketing) among them...parts of Bartok's 'Music for Strings, Percussion& Celesta' for example.

 

[MattHooper]

I don't agree. And it's not odd either. The orchestra is meant to produce a "together" sound in most instances, save for some avantgarde pieces that experiment with spatial effects.

If you were simply saying "I don't care about stereo imaging for classical music" that's one thing. That's just a statement of personal taste.

But you've seemed to go much further than that, and imply "stereo doesn't matter for orchestral music" and also that you don't even hear stereo placement of instruments in orchestral recordings. The former is dead wrong since orchestras span large spaces in the hall, with particular placement of sections and soloists, this is easily heard, and it's mostly the reason stereo was invented in the first place. For the latter, if you really can't hear stereo placement of instruments in most orchestral recordings, it suggests you haven't set up a system in a way to produce the stereo imaging that is most certainly on most orchestral recordings.

I was just playing some orchestral recordings yesterday - tympani was way off to the back right corner like in the hall, surrounded by deep brass instruments, double bass and cellos also placed around the same area but in distinct space, woodwinds to center left, 1st and 2nd violins off to the right.

If you listened and said "I don't hear any of that imaging, I can't tell where any of those instruments are" my first impulse would to be slightly alarmed and suggest you get your hearing checked.

 

[Emlin]

If you were simply saying "I don't care about stereo imaging for classical music" that's one thing. That's just a statement of personal taste.

But you've seemed to go much further than that, and imply "stereo doesn't matter for orchestral music" and also that you don't even hear stereo placement of instruments in orchestral recordings. The former is dead wrong since orchestras span large spaces in the hall, with particular placement of sections and soloists, this is easily heard, and it's mostly the reason stereo was invented in the first place. For the latter, if you really can't hear stereo placement of instruments in most orchestral recordings, it suggests you haven't set up a system in a way to produce the stereo imaging that is most certainly on most orchestral recordings.

I was just playing some orchestral recordings yesterday - tympani was way off to the back right corner like in the hall, surrounded by deep brass instruments, double bass and cellos also placed around the same area but in distinct space, woodwinds to center left, 1st and 2nd violins off to the right.

If you listened and said "I don't hear any of that imaging, I can't tell where any of those instruments are" my first impulse would to be slightly alarmed and suggest you get your hearing checked.

I'd first check that my speakers were wired in phase!

 

[RayDunzl]

Gotcha. Thx.
Looks much more like what's to be expected.
REW simply must have had a hard time latching onto impulse timing at your listening position.

It does fine with comparing impulse response timing, left to right, down to a single sample time, useful for positioning the measurement mic.

But the above measurements are old, so, can't say exactly what was done any more.

Maybe I'll make a new set of everything one of these days.

Uh huh.

All that has changed since then is the version of REW, though.

BTW, a couple of asides........I don't like to use gating either.....and nothing to do with meas, am a CLS owner

My Audio Buddy has a pair of CLS with Rythmik subs and a big Parasound amp.

His room is about twice as long as mine.

My initial audition of ML was with a pair of SL3, in a backroom showroom away from the pedestrian stuff, maybe 60 feet long and 30 feet wide with 20 foot unfinished metal truss ceiling, with the speakers on a little foot high stage at one end, with 500 watts of Krell KAV, eventually running wide open after the Salesman foolishly left me with the remote when he had to answer the pager for something happening up front.

Loud and clean sold me, sounded more like a band than speakers, though I didn't get a pair till later in another city. In 1998 upgraded to the reQuests at that shop though, when they had an "every" speaker sale - buy one get one half price...

 

[Mike1711]

Or it could just be because music is something that 1) makes you wanna move 2) is to be appreciated with other people

Both of these things are handled very poorly in stereo

With respect…no and no. I listen alone and don’t wish to move around. Without stereo image I’m not bothered to listen at anything but a casual background level.

 

[ZolaIII]

In the 1960s, even some orchestral music, like the Henry Mancini albums, were artificially engineered to give you that identifiable stereo sound (eg "Hatari"), but those days are long gone. Thankfully.

Think those Henry Mancini remasters were particularly bright (still have one or two) and that's part of the answer to that question.

 

[FrankW]

I don't care about stereo​

My vote