Why don't more recordings have soundstage outside of speakers

pragmus and anyone else who thinks stereo systems should image outside of the loudspeakers:
You ability to determine where a sound is coming from depends mostly on where the loudest sound in coming from and the delay between getting to one ear to the other. If you do not agree with this you can stop right here.
The volume of the sound coming from a point source speaker decays at the cube of the distance. If you do not agree with this you can also exit here.

Your science is staggering!

Your ignorance also!

You are like first of the class that learned the formula by heart without knowing what they means concretely...

You forgot to experiment with anything save an electronical equalizer tool...

Acoustic is not about volume only but about timing of different volume and frequencies....Acoustic is about the GENESIS of TIMBRE and IMAGING linked together....The 2 are not reducible to playing with frequencies only....REAL TIMING in the room with EARS is necessary...

Not only timing for the room specific character but for the ears/head/brain located in the room not in a millimeter location but in a location stretching for the size of an head.... Then forget microphone feedback selected frequencies for a millimeter ONLY if their value can be useful... Out of this millimeter range the response is gone AMOK....


Acoustic is about diffusion....

Diffusing the right frequencies , damping some others....Not only by acoustical panel surfaces on walls but with Resonators that can do the TWO functions at the same time....Yes the 2 functions at the same time....


Acoustic is about MARKING OUT the 2 first wavefronts coming from EACH speaker for EACH ears and timing the 2 wavefronts in relation with the head distance....

How to mark out the wavefronts for each ear?


Using resonators near the driver of one speaker and resonators near the tweeter of the other speaker.... With asymmetrical resonators located at first reflecting point GUESS WHY?


If you cannot guess why and agree with it you can also exit here and stay with your pityful sound between speakers thinking that must be so, because the user manual of an electronical equalizer said so....

I guess you was first of your class when young... 😊

I was last but was accepted to top college without the usual good grades...

I was accepted to doctorate also without having complete a first year of university....I am creative not a sheep...

 I am tired of your rant against evidence and against everybody testimonies here...And your dismissing of anything that is out of the orthodox and any experiments...

All the people enjoying sound filling the room are not in an hallucination but they are wiseful enough to use other ways than electronical equalization for solution to all acoustic problem.... Then dont give them lesson...Listen first....



Try to buy a book about acoustic, i will send you one free (800 pages) if you send me your mail....


Begin with this short video of an acoustician saying what i try to say to you for almost months now:


Room Correction Deception:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljfts9k5OBw&list=PLnQJF3Qi_4_A5BFgnV1w5wNNfnks3u0oL&index=12

Electronic equalization is not a solution ONLY a secondary tool in acoustic...

Helmholtz resonators grid are PART of the room....

Because most speakers suck. 

The fundamental question I have is that if the original recording only mixes the soundstage within the speaker boundary, then can your system playback have a soundstage that is beyond the speakers?

Pragnmus, what are you talking about. I mention the delay. It is not as important for localization as relative volume. Studies have confirmed this and you can prove it to yourself with one control. The one that says "Balance"

With a system that really images you will have to make small adjustments in balance with most records. Like 0.5 dB or so. 

@sounds_real_audio , you are absolutely correct, most speaker do suck even the better ones. 

Andy2, You can by reflecting sound off the side walls. The reflected sound can throw instruments that are hard left or right beyond the speaker. This is a distortion and a sign of poor system/room management. This is not to say that the ambience in the recording can not seem to come from everywhere, it frequently does. The ambience is at a low level to start with and in the smaller rooms we listen in the reflected sound can compete with sound coming directly from the speakers creating the sensation of venue ambience. Very cool. 

Why don’t more recordings have soundstage outside of speakers

It’s more in how the recording was done, sure having nothing (obstructions) on the outside of speakers help also, get hold of Roger Waters "Amused to Death", it’s done in Q sound, and some of it comes from behind you, and the barking dog at the beginning the first shocker comes form your right shoulder.

What I was told by recording engineer if I remember right.
To get the image happening outside the speakers, you a get right channel only signal (say voice), and if to want it to seem like it’s outside the right speaker you add the same "but out of phase" right channel sound into the left channel", this then shifts it from the right only to outside right.

Cheers George

     "Everything matters" and "Too many variables" should be the most posted thoughts in this thread!

      ie: My son brought the above mentioned Amused To Death (on CD), to the house, when it first came out and a few times afterward.

       It DID amuse me, with all it's effects: probably the most striking was the horse drawn wagon or sleigh, that started well behind my left shoulder, ending up far in front and right.    One SHOULD have the impression, they could hop aboard and take a ride, as it passes their listening position.

       If I remember correctly: a phone ringing (I may have that confused with what's on my Heart vinyl), or was it an AM radio playing, somewhere to my immediate left, in the next room and a dog barking, on my (90 degree) right, outside, on the street.  I didn't know that dog was on the recording, until I played the CD again and the pooch was back.

       Anyway: I ordered the exact same Columbia disc: according (scrupulously) to every bit of it's label info.   It was devoid of ANY of those effects.    Same exact system, same exact room with nothing changed, but: somehow, a different pressing.    

                                          Another example regarding interconnects:

        I'd been using Silver Audio Hyacinths (between pre and main amps) and enjoyed a spacious sound stage and precise imaging, with them, BUT; there were glowing recommendations, regarding new generations of cables, out there.                                    
                                                 Maybe it was time to move on?

         Tried a pair of Wireworld's, then current, Platinum Eclipse interconnects, which gave me a nice uptick, over the Hyacinths, in tone, texture and inner detail (NO: not brightness), but; the width of stage shrank to between my main speakers' outer edges.
                                                                 HMMMM!

          Kept them on hand (for direct comparison) and ordered a pair of Synergistic's Tesla Apex, which provided me with an equal dose of the above improvements (I was somewhat surprised at how alike they sounded, in that regard), but; my sound stage width was accurately back to whatever was on the recordings I'd made, personally.

           I could detail how various NOS phase splitter and driver tubes, in my Cary monoblocks, have affected my system's depth of stage.   Go on and on, with a plethora of further examples, regarding what I've found (over the past 5 decades) make a difference, ad nauseum, but...

          YEAH: everything matters, from the recording, stylus or LASER, to your room and ears.

           If anyone's actually interested in removing the variables, far as the multitude of differences in recordings, at least; try your system's presentation with the tracks on this Chesky CD (especially the LEDR test):

          https://www.amazon.com/Chesky-Records-Sampler-Audiophile-Compact/dp/B000003GF3

          https://cheskyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/chesky-records-jazz-sampler-audiophile-test-vol-1

     Amendment!    I should have said:  ...everything matters, from the recording, stylus or LASER, to your room and the shape (acuity AND pinna) of your ears.

                         Then: there's what the brain does with all that info:

                            https://pstnet.com/auditory-spatial-perception/

                            https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA563540.pdf

                                           Some got, some don't!    

    That's just the science of the whole thing, which (of course) some seem to hate.

Sorry I didn't read all these replies, but was the BSG QOL Completion Device mentioned? That thing will do just what the OP is talking about.