See a show at the sphere on Las Vegas and you’ll get massive soundstage
Is Sound Stage an artifact of recording?
Yesterday had the opportunity to hear a fine chamber music concert featuring musicians from the NY Philharmonic in a small modern chapel with a slightly domed wooden roof. We sat about 15-20 feet from the musicians. The all acoustic sound was excellent. The Schubert Trout piano quintet and Brahms piano quartet in G were the program. Afterwards while de-briefing at dinner with an audiophile friend who went with me and our wives, he made the point that despite the excellent acoustics and premier seating he could not close his eyes and see a "sound stage" during the concert. I had noticed the same thing. The locations of the instruments were diffuse. You could not pinpoint the location of the violin as you might expect you could on a good recording of the same work! We agreed that this was not the first time we had noticed this about live music. So I put the question to learned assembly here on Audiogon. Is sound stage something that is invented or perhaps just an artifact of the recording process to help us get the illusion of real musicians playing in front of us. Responses from those of you who have made recordings will be particularly appreciated.
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Soundstage issues are something that I have struggled with and chased my whole audiophile life. Equipment certainly is important. But now that I have pretty darn good equipment, I believe that “soundstage” is a recording artifact. Some music that I listen to has amazing soundstage, with the instruments located in place and seemingly dispersed on a “stage.” Then, there are other recordings where the instruments are off to either side and not particularly well integrated with the center. It is frustrating. I want everything that I listen to to have that 3D soundstage, but alas, it seems like it has to be in the recording, and not my equipment. Sure, better equipment has the ability to improve the soundstage, but if its not on the recording well, it is not going to magically be there on my equipment either. |
@moto_man you pretty well sum up the situation I think. Only Add that soundstage, while enjoyable, should not really be thought to be necessary to enjoy music since many live performances really don’t feature any soundstage. In fact, I think I am going to experiment with mono listening for a while and see how I like it. |
My answer is yes the sound stage is an artifact of the recording and no it isn't. Let me explain my recent experience. I recently switched speakers and both speakers soundstage changes based on the recording. That being said, recordings that didn't extend outside of the speakers and/or lack spacing with my old speakers, now sound more open, are more immersive, and the same recordings now extends outside of the speakers. |
I think what you may be missing is, when music is recorded it is recorded using various microphones positioned in various locations and then mastered into a recording in such a way that often you can "sort of" pin point what you percieve is the location of the various instruments. Likely, you also then interpret this as a good recording because it is "realistic and allows you into the music" -so to speak. This is what most of us has been taught is the hallmark of good sound reproduction produced by quality electronics- i.e. sources, preamplifiers, amplifiers, speakers, etc. In a live concert -whether acoustic or electronic- you would rarely even attempt to locate the source of the various sounds you are hearing. Especially if the music is enjoyable it just doesn't matter nor do you care where the sound is coming from. Isn't it curious that what we are not even close to caring about in a live performance is the standard we use is judging recorded material in terms of realism, quality, etc.?
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