Soundstaging and imaging are audiophile fictions.

Perhaps I have misunderstood imaging as it is commonly used.
For me,if I can follow the melody,the countermelody,and the obbligto third line defining the harmony without the speakers getting in the way,the speakers image well.

There is a tradeoff relationship between pinpoint localization of sound sources ("imaging") on the one hand, and enveloping ambience and rich timbre on the other. This goes for performance venues as well as for home stereo systems. It has to do with the relative energy levels of the direct and reverberant sound fields. Most performance venues naturally generate powerful, diffuse, fairly slowly-decaying reverberant fields. This is the major contributor to the lush sonic texture and rich, delicious ambience of a good concert hall.

Compared to a live performance in an appropriate hall, most home stereo systems generate a relatively weak (and tonally incorrect) reverberant field. This weak reverberant field is conducive to good imaging and clarity, but not to rich timbre and ambience. Loudspeaker radiation patterns play a very significant (but mostly under-appreciated) role in recreating the feel of a live performance... in my opinion.

Duke

"Rich timbre" ??? What on earth is that? Jeff, I agree that timbral accuracy, tonal accuracy, clarity and dynamics are what's important. But surely, soundstaging in the sense of depth and general localization are heard in live performances, unless you are so far away from the stage that the stage is a point source. No?

Jeffery,

IMO, I feel that your statements are not true! From whatever little I know, "imaging" of speaker defines how balanced the sound volume is from each speaker. If the speakers image well then the soundstage gets re-created more correctly vs. incorrectly w.r.t. the original music event that was recorded. If the singer is in the center in the "live" event (concert or studio), it gets re-created in the center, if the violin is on the left, then that gets re-created on the left, etc, etc *IF* speakers image well. Most recordings assume the listener would have sat in the center of a concert hall or in the center of a studio recording so that instruments are more or less evenly spaced in front. If the speakers do not image well, the soundstage gets skewed to the one having more sound volume. You could consider that you bought a ticket on the left orch. or right orch side but it feels uncomfortable in a home stereo system to have the soundstage skewed left or right.
In a live concert/performance there is pinpoint imaging, of course. Symphonies are prime examples (not Swan Lake as you are watching ballet & the orch. is in the orch pit!) - as TWL mentioned, it is easy to pick-up the location of the soloist, the drums, violins & wind instruments if one closes one's eyes. It is also easy to perceive that the soloist is in front & that the drums are behind. Maybe you have never cared to take note of these things in a live event because you are concentrating more on the music itself. IMO, nothing wrong there at all! Many people like to hear music & couldn't care much about soundstage width & depth or pin-point imaging, etc, etc. You could be such a person perhaps? I'm afraid that all these technical terms do exist in live music. What stereo systems seem to compromise is how the instruments reverberate & decay in the concert hall & how they create a certain ambience. This gap seems definitive - closing with better & better equipment - but still very much there.

What's missing here is that a live performance is also a visual performance. What the hall does not really do, the mind does with the spatial cues from the eyes. Sure the sound may be more homogenous if you close your eyes and convince yourself of it but by using your eyes the "pinpoint" accuracy is evident. I have found that when a recording is good, it allows that visual cue that is reminiscent of the live venue through imagination. I think it is absolutely necessary, especially at the recording stage, to get this right. I recently was given my first SACD demo and wherever in the chain the fault lay it sounded like the hi-hat was 10' away from the floor tom and the bassist about 15' away from the guitarist who was standing exactly where the speaker was. What a mess. When it is done right you can look, with your minds eye, at the bassist where he would be on stage and listen more closely this time. Next time you get caught by the lick on the piano and the eyes physically dart away from the bass.(even when they are shut) It is by this precision that you hear something new each time.
Classical music most definitely has "soundstaging" and the very specific seating of the orchestra reflects that and is used by composers and conductors creatively for effect.