Why the objectivists will never win!

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What is the exact measurement method you are using today to measure soundstage depth cues embedded in an audio stream?

Given that image/soundstage is an illusion that is concocted by your brain i expect it would be very difficult to tease out what to measure. First step would be to examine the hiuman mind and figure out what the important clues are.

Which brings up an elephant in the room. We still have so much to leartn about the human ear/brain perception system (and teh variations amoungst the population.

dave
 
Examples?
You may not like this one, but SMPS or other EMI/RFI fairly low level noise mixing in with the audio (mixing = intermodulation and or summing). It can add a pretty small, possibly jittery effect that may sometimes interfere with localization somehow or other, maybe by disturbing ITD timing? Don't know. Something like that is what it sounds like one of my low distortion HPAs may be doing. The other one sounds more like it could be asymmetrical crosstalk. The crosstalk one wasn't as bad, but not good enough for what I needed. I would rather have a credible sound stage and put up with -80dB, 2nd harmonic; although I would rather not have that either.
 
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Examples?
To me the best example is that when you close your eyes you don’t hear the speakers but have the illusion of a consistent uninterupted 3D “cloud” of sound or soundstage.

Many speakers fail to provide this image and are very noticeable producing individual stereo soundstreams such as my nice looking active B&O aluminium pilar speakers.

To my subjective experience, Quad ESL’s do a perfect job in letting themselves completely disappear, and although not perfect, extremely satisfactory for the type of music I play.

Hans
 
@gpapag

That appears to be related to car audio effects stuff, as well as the venue spatial sampling stuff (which is also used for car audio).

IOW, the type of stuff described below by another member:
Car audio is only one application of his work.
If you are looking for spatial cues that have been identified by scientists/engineers, these might be spotted in some of his papers.
There is no need to reply to my post, at least not before having had a good look at his work. There is a lot to read there.
Enjoy.
George
 
...Car audio...
Its just that I searched for 'spatial' and the term 'car' showed up in a number of the titles.

It was then that 'cars' seemed most germane to what we have recently been discussing. Didn't notice anything about measuring depth cues in existing music recordings. If info on that turns up or if I missed it, I would be very interested to know 🙂
 
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Sound localization:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_localization#:~:text=its current location.-,Human auditory system,us to localize sound sources.

Also of possible interest, the the modern field of study on human hearing:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2016.00524/full

In terms of some of the stuff that is being measured, manipulated, and synthesized in audio today:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...-audiophile-market.402902/page-3#post-7451161

Also this: https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...9ed56994b/1673513005206/8700i+A3+brochure.pdf

The above product brochure states the following:

"Xponential LoudnessTM Algorithm: The Xponential
LoudnessTM algorithm reduces listening fatigue and actually
improves listeners’ hearing using adaptive psychoacoustics.
It’s like an audio magnifying glass that brings out hidden
details, clarifying audio and inspiring audiences to listen longer."


Snake oil, you think?
The interesting thing here is there’s no reference to feedback levels or low distortion affecting imaging.

Just sayin’

😊
 
The astounding thing about the Bernstein recording is that it was done in 1964 in a Hotel ballroom. No fancy DACs, opamps or hard drives. Just tubes and tapes. Mic placement and good recording engineering did the magic. The Abbado recording (‘70’s vintage) is also fantastic although it clips for a second or two on one of the crescendos unfortunately. However, the dynamic range is huge (Firebird Suite - I don’t care must for the flip side).

I have a few von Karajan recordings - beautiful pressings but they are flat. My neighbour is a classical music buff with over 1000 vinyls are a good setup. Hf had some superb Brahms stuff.
 
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