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What should you hear?

I'm new to the hobby and curious what type of imaging sound stage you should hear.  I have a pair of Vandersteen 2ce signatures and they sound great.  What I find however is that the imaging, sound stage is very dependent on the recording.   

Norah Jones?  She sounds like she's sitting right in the room.  It's amazing.  

One I'm particularly interested in learning more about is Brubek's Take Five.   The saxophone images great.  Sounds dead center.  The piano however is clearly coming from the right hand speaker and the drums are clearly coming from the left.  Is this typical? 

Thanks for your input and tolerating a "newbie" question. 
mvrooman1526

Showing 2 responses by audionoobie

audionoobie's avatar
audionoobie
374 posts
 

OP, What you just described is the very definition of sound stage to me. The recording engineers will pan instruments left to right within a recording. You will find on many pop and rock records that the kick drum, snare drum, vocals, and bass guitar are dead center with the other instuments panned around to create space and separation.

They will also make certain instruments louder or softer so they seem closer or farther away from you. Instruments with more reverb may also sound more distant, which helps to create the illusion of a 3D sound stage.

What you described in Norah Jones vs. Dave Brubeck is 100% correct. That is the way the engineers mixed those recordings.

Cheers,Joe

audionoobie's avatar
audionoobie
374 posts
 
Another quick example is Oscar Peterson - Night Train. Oscar Peterson is mixed dead center, while Ed Thigpen is panned to the right speaker, and Ray Brown left.
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