Are you troubled by the imaging of a symphony orchestra?

mglik, something for you to consider that hasn’t been mentioned.

Have you attended concerts by different orchestras and not mostly just one? I ask because not all orchestras arrange the strings with all violins hard left and violas, cello and basses to the right.

Some orchestras situate violas spread across the center, left to right; others to the right. Still others place the celli on the left and to the right of the first violins with the second violins hard right. Sometimes the basses are situated left and rear. There are still other preferred seating arrangements and they are at the discretion of the hometown conductor; seldom the guest conductor.

If you are used to hearing what you describe, recordings by orchestras which use a different seating arrangement may account for your reaction.

Good post by Brownsfan 😊

mglik, you may find this interesting (scroll down a bit):

https://andrewhugill.com/OrchestraManual/seating.html

@frogman back at you sir!

Large Jazz Band

I saw the Hot Sardines live, wide stage, trumpet far left (behind the christmas tree actually), horns moving in, bass, drums, to piano far right. Up front, tap dancer left of center, singer right of center. 

bought this album, awesome recording

https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Home-Bon-Voyage-Sardines/dp/B07NBD1QDF

"This live album was recorded in two originative bursts at their regular haunt, Joe's Pub, in New York and Koerner Hall in Toronto."

but, the imaging was opposite of what I saw/heard live???

turns out, Donna was at that show at Joe's Pub, smaller stage, and the piano was on the left.

Still, my mind was expecting the opposite. Oh yeah, the McIntosh mode switch has 'stereo reverse'. Bingo, nirvana.

One of the reasons I have wheels on my heavy speakers is so I can adjust toe-in, for single listener, for wider center for 2 listeners, content with too much separation, or content with not enough separation.

I also chose a cartridge with both wide channel separation and tight channel balance, a big part of imaging success.

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/cartridges/line-series/at33-series/at33ptg-2

Next, you need the tools and skills to align the cartridge. Once physical alignments are correct, anti-skate is critical to imaging.

I use both the CD and Vinyl versions of this to first tweak my system balance with the CD, then twerk my anti-skate on LP version

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_in_San_Francisco

side 2, tracks 2 and 3: CD proves system balance is correct, then LP, adjust anti-skate to get the imaging of the 3 guitarists right.

Then, it's about content with great: recording techniques, engineering, mixing, pressing ... Many awesome recordings are out there, but you cannot buy any '1812' you need to do some research, find the ones done right.