Is your image centred?

LUNA: Take it from me, please, if you dwell on this past due diligence you will spoil your pleasure. Do whatever you can, with yourself and your chosen experts, to make your rig as good as it can be. Past that there is a point of no return where it ain't about the music at all anymore, and that will not be satisfying or fun on any level. Do what you can, and project your mind into that off center image as if it were the whole of space. It is all mind anyway....

With what I just said not withstanding, yes, try a mono record and know for sure.

No doubt that the above statement is true. I have many records and their CD counterparts, and very often the soundstage has been 'moved' to appear more balanced or centered. I think it almost always is more contrived, and of course, less natural. Besides the 'you are there' seal of reality that vinyl has, the engineers who do the digital remasters end up throwing in their 2 cents on top of the original artists work. If they were such geniuses they would have albums of their own. I want to hear the original artist's and engineer's work, not some later day yahoo who got hired for the job. The only exception in when a really great engineer does the remastering, which happens every so often.