Is soundstage DEPTH a myth?

Santana S/T been mentioned regarding depth in recording. I do believe also Santana Caravanserai needs to be recognized. An absolute masterpiece I thought fifty years ago and still do. Back then for the music and now also for the recording. Just listen to the first tracks. Santana S/T a little too much left-right oriented IMO.

Hello all. Is the Chesky test cd on Qobuz ? I couldn’t find it. Thanks ! 

I'd like to add one more thing to my earlier comments on recording technique and that is the visual cues that can add a sense of depth of the sound stage.  Much of what we perceive aurally in a concert hall is influenced by what we see.  I've always kept my speakers fairly distant from the wall behind them and have kept that area fairly dark and distraction free.  If there is space behind the speakers, it's often times a lot easier to sense that space filled up with the source.  I see a lot of photos of some very high  end systems where the space between the speakers is filled with all the high dollar eye candy that is driving the speakers.  That, in my opinion is a big distraction.  When I'm listening to an orchestra or even a jazz quartet or for that matter a classical guitarist, I don't care to stare at stacks of hardware, no matter how impressive it looks.  Get those distractions off to the side and the three dimensional image of the performers will often times magically appear.  That's always worked for me anyway.

no of course its not a myth. neither is width and height. we live in 3 dimensions. our brain makes 3D sense o the recordings where the recordings are good enough and the equipment is set up properly. 

some people cant perceive this. no different than  some people cant tell whats a straight line or isnt. not everyone has good perception. 

This has been an interesting read. A lot of ‘Interesting’ responses. In my system, in my room, Playing ‘Money for Nothing’ I can hear that Sting is behind Mark Knopfler and just to the right. - I cannot make that out on most systems - This is from the 80’s and is a (Rock - sort of) track.

So, yes, depth is real and it depends on the recording and primarily the sound engineer’s skills.