@bdp24, I agree that if you are interested in a system that is accurate to what was recorded then the system should reproduce the soundstage as the studio mix intended you to hear it even though it may not be accurate to how the performers were actually arranged. That is if you have the ability to place your speakers in your room ideally. If it is a live field recording then it is how the performers were mic'd and then mixed. In both instances the soundstage could run the full gamut from pin point to diffuse. The question is do you like pinpoint positioning of the performers when listening or do you like to be washed in sound? Purchase and place your components so that they enhance your sound stage preference. Either way you still can purchase equipment / speakers that reproduce sound accurately. Accurate sound and soundstage in my opinion are two different variables that one considers when setting up a system which also must take into account the room in which you will be listening, in particular speaker positioning in regards to the room's boundaries.
Pin point imaging isn't for everyone
A subject my posts touch on often is whether pin point imaging is desirable, or natural. While thinking about wide-baffle speakers in another thread I came across this quote, courtesy of Troels Graveson’s DIY speaker site. He quotes famous speaker designer Roy Allison:
You can read Troel’s entire post here:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Acapella_WB.htm
This goes, kind of, with my points before, that you can tweak the frequency response of a speaker, and sometimes cables, to get better imaging, but you are going significantly far from neutral to do so. Older Wilson’s were famous, and had a convenient dip around 2.4 kHz.
I had emphasized dispersion in order to re-create as best as I could the performance-hall ambiance. I don’t want to put up with a sweet spot, and I’d rather have a less dramatically precise imaging with a close simulation of what you hear in a concert hall in terms of envelopment. For that, you need reverberant energy broadcast at very wide angles from the loudspeaker, so the bulk of energy has to do multiple reflections before reaching your ear. I think pin-point imaging has to do with synthetically generated music, not acoustic music - except perhaps for a solo instrument or a solo voice, where you might want fairly sharp localization. For envelopment, you need widespread energy generation.
You can read Troel’s entire post here:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Acapella_WB.htm
This goes, kind of, with my points before, that you can tweak the frequency response of a speaker, and sometimes cables, to get better imaging, but you are going significantly far from neutral to do so. Older Wilson’s were famous, and had a convenient dip around 2.4 kHz.