Yes most recordings have imaging and sound stage that is "Hi-Fi". However, live large scale orchestral music CAN have very distinct imaging if the hall is dry and the instrumentalist is playing to stand out from the section. For example, the violin at the end of the third movement of the Brahms First or in Sheherazade. However, usually the music calls for bowing or intonation such that the sound is as a choir of instruments. You can easily locate the position of the section but it is hard to pick out the individual instrumentalist. I have heard the Chicago Symphony in Orchestra Hall from the first balcony hundreds of times. With your eyes closed you could pick out a soloist with accuracy approaching + or - two chairs. You can also clearly hear the relative depth of woodwinds, horns, trumpets. In Orchestra Hall the imaging is worse on the main floor. From the conductor's podium (I got there twice during Solti recording sessions) the imaging pin points to how the players are holding their instruments! At the opera with the pit and a greater degree of reverberation, imaging is blurrier but relative left to right and depth is still pretty clear. The early Reiner recordings do an excellent job of capturing the true sound and layout of the CSO in Orchestra Hall from a relatively close audience seat. Try Zarathustra or the Bartok recordings. It is VERY difficult to get your system to reproduce the imaging but it can be done. If you can't hear the clear and consistent sound stage with these recordings you have a system problem because it's not subtle. Since these are available on premium vinyl and CD they are excellent for checking out both your sources. The Solti recordings with the CSO used many spot mikes and Decca reording tricks plus most weren't made in Orchestra Hall. These recordings sound like the CSO, namely you can tell it's still Herseth on trumpet, but they don't have a consistent natural sound stage. BTW in addition to electronics, room acoustics and speaker placement is absolutely critical. If you can't close to point image in mono your system won't image in stereo. re dkarmeli, Maybe in jazz the double bass is always fat and loose. However, played live, in the opening and final movement of the Mahler 2nd, the Rite of Spring or Wotan's Spear motive, the bite of the double basses of the Chicago Symphony will rip your scalp off (the composers wanted it that way). If on a recording I can't get that, as a music lover, I have been cheated of the composer's intentions.
Sound-stage, imaging, focus......
I would like to get some facts and opinions about sound-stage, imaging and focus as presented by a system. When I began my system purchasing process, I listened for a sound which came close to a live acoustical performance. For me, that meant instruments sounded real. I was not listening for sound-staging, imaging, etc., because, try as I might, I have not been able to comprehend sound-staging, exact placement of instruments (re: two chairs to the left of the pricipal trumpet), micro-dynamics, etc. at a live performance. That just doesn't happen for me from any position in an auditorium or club. I have never commented after a concert that "the focus and depth were spectacular". Are these descriptions applicable only to reproduced sound or am I missing something?