Creating a Large Sound Stage

Speaking of the 360 soundstage , marantz av 10 has 16 channels and now music is producing more music in atmos. The dirac does not care if the couch is in the way.you paid big bucks to have a sound engineer  come to your home and set it up but now it's built in. The audiophile avr are here now you can put any amps you want on it with 16 xlr 4 independent xlr for sub run on its own channel with dsp control to match them all in synergy. Read the reviews cuz it takes a triton like processor at 4x the price to beat it. Enjoy the new technoligy

After 40 years of professional experience it comes down to a couple of factors 

1 the equipment must preserve all spatial information by virtue of having good resolution 

The speakers must also have low coloration high resolution and good dispersion 

The room must not be too reverberant and the speakers need adequate space

We have found dual concentric designs like Kefand cabasse image extremely well

Dave and Troy

Lots of apt observations above.  One thing I always do when setting up speakers is listen to Her Majesty stereo from Abbey Road,  Paul's voice starts far right, moves to the center, and then moves left.  I listen for focus, starting and finishing width, clarity, and consistent volume at various locations.  

Sometimes I wonder if I really want a 15 foot wide drum kit, or piano. Pretty sure their arms are not really that long. 

But I used to run a set of Energy bookshelf connoisseurs with a $300 Yamaha receiver, and it had no problem throwing images well beyond the edges of the speakers, so I don't think the amp is a factor. 

@audiotroy 

We have found dual concentric designs like Kefand cabasse image extremely well

Spot on!  Speakers which emulate a point source of sound have far more coherent reflections than those with multiple separated drivers.  Once your ear/brain becomes accustomed to this effect, the difference is chalk and cheese.

I am thinking Quad electrostatics from the ESL-63 and later, which despite being big panel speakers, emulate a point source a foot behind the panel.  High-end KEF speakers like the Reference 1 do the same sort of thing.  My Reference 1 speakers easily throw a sound stage triple the width of the actual speaker separation.

Virtual line source speakers may do the same, but I have no personal experience with them.

In my opinion the only other thing you need is a good recording made in a natural acoustic environment, not a multi-miked studio recording with artifacts.  Almost any classical recording of orchestral music will do, especially if it is available on SACD.

Now that I've offended most Audiogoners, I might as well add that the difference between two-channel and multi-channel is another case of chalk and cheese.  Stop fussing over whether you can hear a miniscule change because of a power cord 'upgrade'.

To really experience multi-channel, visit 2L - the Nordic Sound where most of their recent recordings on silver disk are packaged with SACD (including CD, two-channel DSD, multi-channel DSD) and Pure Audio Blu-ray which includes high resolution PCM up to 9 channels and Dolby Atmos (up to 32-channels).  Don't even dream about streaming at these rates.