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From: greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Stereo Imaging at Live Concerts
Message-ID: <371@olivee.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Jun-85 13:17:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: olivee.371
Posted: Mon Jun  3 13:17:53 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Jun-85 03:12:01 EDT
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Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca
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> The quality of stereo imaging at live concerts has been called into question 
> recently by net.audio, as have, by implication, those audiophiles who expect 
> concert hall realism in their audio systems.  I've had some bad experiences 
> in some halls, especially with bad seats or nearly empty halls.  But this is 
> NOT always the case.
> 
  ...
> 
>                            Tony Lauck
>                           ...decvax!decwrl!rhea!bergil!lauck

I've raised this question in articles before.  The point that I was trying
to make is not that there is no "imaging" or "soundstage" at a live
performance, but rather that it seems very different from what some
audiophiles on the net (and a number of writers in such pubs as
"Absolute Sound") seem to expect from their audio gear.

What I specifically question is the notion that, in a "realistic"
recording/playback situation (one that sounds as much as possible like
what you would hear live) of a full orchestra, one should be able to
isolate the sound of individual instruments as coming from a fixed
point in space, and that one should be able to determine the full
seating arrangement of the orchestra.  If this were true, it would
defeat the entire purpose of choosing the "standard" seating of an
orchestra, which is to provide as great a blend of instrumental sounds
as possible while maintaining the clarity of inner voices.  In other
words, if you can clearly hear the doubling of a clarinet part and can
isolate the two players on a recording, something is wrong either in the
playing or the recording, since the intent of such doubling is to
provide the effect of a single, fuller-sounding instrument.

If, at an orchestral concert or opera, I'm aware of individual sounds
emanating from the individual seating positions of the instruments, I
feel I have a poor seat.  Some speakers (and other audio equipment) with
rises in the upper middle range and lower treble have the effect of
emphasizing detail to the point of pulling apart the individual strands
of the music and thereby damaging the effect of a unified orchestral
"fabric" that you would hear live.

I have to mention that, of late, I find well recorded CD's more likely
to reproduce the blend of instruments that I've heard live without the
exaggeration of separation (not referring to that between l/r channels
as much as that between individual instruments, however they are placed)
that I hear on a number of analogue recordings.  I know that this
specifically contradicts the claims of "harshness" and "overanalytical"
qualities attributed to CD's (and which I heard myself in the first
releases on the first players), but it represents what I've heard and
perceived rather than what I've read.

	- Greg Paley