Is Sound Stage an artifact of recording?

Wall Of Sound Live, did you ever go to a Grateful Dead Show?

What did they call their tower of speakers? I once saw the amount of McIntosh Amps they needed for that.

I once saw the Stones, big stadium, I think Shea, anyway, walking in, huge towers of speakers, OH BOY, holy crap, we get in.

Living Color Opens. They sound like crap fried with .... 

I realized, they were not letting them use the full sound system.

The Stones hit it, you could feel the entire place shake, not as 'Full' as Grateful Dead, but More Powerful, I think the most powerful I ever experienced (Steel Wheels).

You gotta hear the Kinks at the Beacon. During Lola, every drunken guy gets up, shakes in unison, you can see the balcony above you moving, and there's another one above them moving.

If sober, you start to think about the collapse of that bridge at the Hallmark Building.

@ronboco This applies to only those who enjoy the symphony and other live acoustic events. I never grew up with that so I could care less.

Neither did I. The best music player I was exposed to as a kid was the car radio. You can grow into these things. Learning more about music and trying to play it helps. The big jump for me came in my adult years when I began to find the ever changing lines of jazz more appealing than the ABAB structure of most pop and rock. Stay open and enjoy your journey.

https://www.merlijnvanveen.nl/en/study-hall/216-mono-or-stereo

This article might explain why your missing soundstage/image?

@bruce19 

i do have some classical and jazz,  acoustic etc. songs on my playlist that I have discovered in the last few years and I enjoy them. I’ve just always been so surprised so many here rely on that type of music to build their system around. I guess that type of music is above my pay grade being a blue collar guy. 

@ghdprentice  You may not have read the full details about the recording of Body and Soul by Joe Jackson. Multiple microphones were used.

The hall’s reverberant acoustics were captured by a matched stereo pair of expensive Neumann M50 microphones. Kershenbaum and Jackson set the band up to play together, with each instrument close-miked for individual focus as needed. ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_and_Soul_(Joe_Jackson_album)

The album’s liner note describes the care that went into the recording, including the microphones used: two vintage Neumann M-50s hung 15’ in the air, with others placed closer to instruments for balance. The result captured “The explosive sound of this stone-and-wood hall . . .”  ~ https://www.soundstageaccess.com/index.php/music-and-movie-reviews/featured-releases/1077-joe-jackson-body-and-soul?utm_source=chatgpt.com

In the history of the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album—classical or non-classical—there have been few, if any, recordings made using only two microphones. Please do your due diligence.