Do loudspeakers need to image precisely?
I might find them preferable to those that image imprecisely.
Do loudspeakers need to image precisely?
I don't experience great imaging when I listen to an electronically amplified blues band in a small crowded bar without any mixing board and each instrument having it's own amp.
I don't experience great imaging when I'm walking through a train station and hear a busker playing the saxophone down the corridor.
Last night, while eating dinner al fresco in Waikiki, there was a folk guitarist about 70 meters away, across a pond, with palm trees in between, using a cheap portable PA, the sound reverberating around a courtyard. There wasn't anything I would call imaging.
On Sunday there was a street parade, with a marching band, and the wall of sound coming from them had no resemblance to what I think of as imaging.
When I hear a live violin playing through an open window, it's not a sense of imaging that lets me know it's live.
For me, it's transients and dynamics.
FWIW, some of my mono recordings also have a great sense of depth, which leads me to believe imaging isn't just a stereo thing.
What I had in mind is something from using panel speakers. The backwave is out of phase. With certain spacing from the rear wall, the reflected rear wave can bounce back and reinforce the front wave over a narrow frequency range rather than canceling it. It is a comb filter effect, and only works to help on the low end of such speakers just a little bit.
I'll have to take your word for that, I've never been to one.When I go to a live, unamplified concert, I don't get precise audio imaging,
So I expect my speakers to emulate the "pope-listening-position"
but "the pope seat" is what a sound engenier will adujst his stereo micing teqnique to. a mid-side microphone configuration for example is one that gives the engenier the possibility to actualy adjust the stereo field in the studioIt's not the speakers but where the mics are placed that defines the "listener" perspective (what I like to call soundscape)
whenever I go to a classical concert I make sure to get a frontish seat (too close is not good, too), and as close to the middle as possible. whenever I couldn't get seats like this I was distracted by the imperfections. There is a reason they put the pope where they put him lol