I recall an article - It's all about thee music article in HIFIPLUS years ago and thought what a total load of crap - otherwise we'd all be listening to £20 Walkmans or MP2 players.
As you invest more in a system and its' connection to you, you prioritise and prefer certain things - some people are tone sensitive, some rhythm sensitive, some treble - others spatial awareness.
To that end I think to some imaging is everything. It's often the mark of a better system - rarely do very good/ well put together systems - lack in this respect.
I personally cannot understand thee obsession for high end headphones - they do not image - they can't - Ken Ishiwata explained this succinctly at the High End shows in Hammersmith about how the signal from each speaker arrives at a different time to our ears.
Anyway I digress - simply put good imaging is usually a direct correlation to the overall ability of your system, it's coherence, balance and ability
As you invest more in a system and its' connection to you, you prioritise and prefer certain things - some people are tone sensitive, some rhythm sensitive, some treble - others spatial awareness.
To that end I think to some imaging is everything. It's often the mark of a better system - rarely do very good/ well put together systems - lack in this respect.
I personally cannot understand thee obsession for high end headphones - they do not image - they can't - Ken Ishiwata explained this succinctly at the High End shows in Hammersmith about how the signal from each speaker arrives at a different time to our ears.
Anyway I digress - simply put good imaging is usually a direct correlation to the overall ability of your system, it's coherence, balance and ability