Is stereo an unimportant "parlour trick"?

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Isn't this whole thread (I only got past the first page) based on a false premise, that music in the home is meant to recreate a live event?

Most music is just an art form, an art form that is created with two speakers out in front. To recreate the art form, you also use two speakers out in front too.

Some of it is absolutely NOT about two speakers out in front and instead is deliberately an art form to be listened via headphones.

If you create something for 5.1 or 7.1 or dolby whatsit with loads of speakers.... then you recreated it on a 5.1 or 7.1 or dolby whatsit set-up.

You dont have to theorise or philosophise any more than that at all ..
 
Still, (<even still:p) image belongs to sight, as with the focus...
So, to abandon the parallel, which is misleading...

The localization is obtained from L&R

The depth is the ratio distance/amplitude

An I on the right path?
:angel:

Don't forget phase and EQ differences (from the head and ears) and reflections. Localisation is in effect calculated from normalisation of enivronment and experience/learning, not necessarily directly from ratios etc, but pure experience-feedback mechanisms.

I think it will be timing differences (between sound reaching each ear) / amplitude ratio anyway. The brain won't know distance. Also treble energy loss with distance.
 
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How important is visualising musicians in different places to the enjoyment of listening to music?
Personally I find it completely unimportant, and even distracting when I cannot see them.
And unless it is originally recorded in stereo, to me it is just the sound from one musician being positioned arbitrarily to the left or right of the sound from another.
However, other listeners love listening in stereo, and all that that means. I enjoy the diversity of views.
 
If you listen to Pink Floyd's Animals in 2-channel stereo, you'll realize that stereo can be 3D (sounds coming from behind you and from a distance in front of you). I still don't understand how they did it. And on Chesky' test and demo CD there is a track where the sound source goes up/down.
 
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