Although through the tricks of stereo you can deliberately encode height information, in mono as I mentioned it is the speakers and the room, and if you treat the room reflections correctly the very little sense of height you may now hear can certainly be suppressed.
The center image is solid with stereo without much effort, but when you listen closely you can hear for example a guitar that is mostly in the right channel but also put in the left channel very slightly and possibly delayed to create an echo effect, and then your brain has to start working harder, which you may or may not notice.
Sure that sensation of height has to be caused by local phase shifts. I will dial out a lot of it when ceiling panels are installed.
As for the recording and echo could we argue it’s the same at a performance or there is something different about how stereo fakes it?
I suppose all listening to some degree involves using subconscious brain power.
We can evolved with our ears to detect threats and so we don’t use that system all the time at least these day. I suppose people of the past may have had large periods of having to use their ears.
Today we have the luxury of willingly going to performances of music to use our auditory systems for hours. Alternatively playing music on our systems to do something similar.
For me in general upgrading my system has cut down the “listen closer” impulse a lot.
When I started this hobby it was crazy. I’d spend money get the product home and listen intently. It was stupid in hindsight. More of a hunt to find justification for the expenditure.
There was so much mental noise. Maybe I could call it the meta nonsense. The story of how I heard and then acquired the speaker/amp/cable/turntable. The psych up of the designer’s qualifications, their marketing junk and the mental masturbation of reading the reviews.
So much mental energy spent into listening “hard”.
Now I don’t bother. Either it’s there and apparent or I don’t bother. Some songs still with a highly resolving system do invite you to listen harder. But it’s easier to follow the different tracks in the mix. Sometimes you have to expend some energy.
Overall though the upgrade was worth it primarily for the reason you brought up. The amount of energy I use while listening is far less than before. Maybe not as low as going to a live performance but roughly about there. Very rarely do I care to listen with concentration anymore. There’s just so much to catch without expending that kind of energy.
I’ve come to learn that’s the highest goal of improving your system. So you can listen and enjoy with the least amount of energy expenditure.
Edit: One other thing I noticed is that the audiophile will go into reading about the equipment. The musician type will start reading about the musicians and their backstory. This tells me something is wrong.
If the waves hitting your ears aren’t moving you enough to not have to read then something is wrong. If you read more than you listen then something is wrong. Just a simple litmus test of whether your system is working for you or you are working for it.
That’s a difficult trap for all of us to avoid. All of is discussing equipment and science here is great. What proportion of my time is spent here vs actually listening?
