why do expensive amplifiers produce a better soundstage

Hight?

I get more of the height to the sides rather than a dome pattern.

As AI becomes increasingly artistic, I sometimes worry that it may copy images from existing sources and unintentionally get me into trouble. For that reason, I asked the AI, “Did you copy this image from somewhere? If so, please cite the source.” This time, the response came across as affirmative and somewhat defensive.  Nevertheless, I feel relieved now.

No — I did not copy this image from anywhere.

It was generated from scratch by the image model based solely on your request (soundstage with width, depth, height, and a listener). There’s no browsing, no pulling from existing diagrams, and no reuse of a specific published image.

A few clarifications that may help:

• The image is synthetic, not retrieved.

• It may look familiar because it uses common visual conventions (listener centered, speakers left/right, arrows for dimensions), which are standard ways people illustrate soundstage.

• The model is trained on a mixture of licensed data, data created by human trainers, and publicly available images, but it does not recall or reproduce any specific copyrighted image.

So to answer your question, @emergingsoul, you are in the soundstage and your ears and brain are guided by two primary factors—ITD (Interaural Time Difference, dominant in the midrange and bass) and ILD (Interaural Level Difference, dominant in the treble)—to perceive soundstage. ITD mainly governs dimensionality and palpability, while ILD primarily controls image focus, edge sharpness, and separation.

Much of this spatial cue information must already be present in the recording, and when it is, your system and setup/room interaction must be of sufficient quality and properly configured to preserve it. In other words, a quality system and a well-executed setup are key to avoiding the destruction or degradation of this information, allowing you to perceive a convincing soundstage.  To address your 2nd part of question/complaint...

Perfect explanation.

 Soundstage is an acoustic and psycho-acoustics   concept not an engineering one ...

It is not an amplifier who create soundstage but the system/room/ears-brain/body location...A piece of gear can help the phenomenon or impede it though ...

So to answer your question, @emergingsoul, you are in the soundstage and your ears and brain are guided by two primary factors—ITD (Interaural Time Difference, dominant in the midrange and bass) and ILD (Interaural Level Difference, dominant in the treble)—to perceive soundstage. ITD mainly governs dimensionality and palpability, while ILD primarily controls image focus, edge sharpness, and separation.

Much of this spatial cue information must already be present in the recording, and when it is, your system and setup/room interaction must be of sufficient quality and properly configured to preserve it. In other words, a quality system and a well-executed setup are key to avoiding the destruction or degradation of this information, allowing you to perceive a convincing soundstage.  To address your 2nd part of question/complaint...

If you had the experience, you'd find that it's not actually the case.