Is soundstage DEPTH a myth?

Soundstage depth is real. I hear it on almost every recording. Except the lousy ones. For the record. I use Watson Labs Model 10 speakers. They are dipoles with subs.  My room is carpeted and  treated to minimize echo. I find more depth with dipoles than any other speaker.  I believe. But cannot prove. That depth is also a function of the distortion profile. Mostly even order harmonic distortion proveds more depth. I came to this conclusion adjusting the distortion profile on my 80 wpc  first watt v3 amps. This could explain why some say  tube amps give more depth... 

For a good spatial example, "Kind Of Blue" exhibits excellent soundstage depth (and width). It's very easy to pick out the instruments' three dimensional placements.

Soundstage depth is real if it’s in the recording to begin with.

AND - If many other things are aligned in your system and room acoustics

Much audio gear just does not image well, particularly speakers, in the true sense of imaging and depth. A properly time and phase aligned speaker not only sounds tonally correct but exhibits palpable imaging.

The biggest obstacle to attain "real life" palpable imaging will be your room acoustics and speaker placement.

I will tell you now, if you have no acoustic treatment going on just forget it, it just won’t happen. If you look at the very best recording studios in the world, they spend loads of money and design effort on acoustics going beyond the RFZ necessity. Once the room has a sufficient reflection free zone in the listening position (the wider the better) then you can start positioning the speakers for optimal soundstage and imaging. This of course is a bit of the chicken or the egg first situation. Acoustics going beyond the RFZ will help with later reflections supporting the ambience of recordings. This is called RT60 and is the length of time frequencies take to decay in a room. If a room is too dead (or dry), the RT60 will be too short and systems sound lifeless.

So you need the right balance in a playback room as well as the RFZ, and speaker positioning.

Many Dacs are also not great at imaging or creating a 3d soundstage, usually timing issues or jitter to blame. I am full digital with really great Dac’s at my disposal so I enjoy breathtaking soundstage and image depth.

Many audiophiles mistaken imaging with just the sense of space versus feeling like you’re actually at or in the venue. This perspective again depends on the recording itself.

I am both a dealer / custom room designer, and I’ve been designing & building AV rooms for 30 years now. 

audiobyditomasso.ca

@rodman99999

Who asked you?

The OP asked if there was mythology involved, I accommodated him with the POV of an EXPERT/professional in the field.

Sheesh.

My background is in science/medicine. Questioning is second nature for me. We don’t TRUST the science, we test it in the real world.

Now I’m wondering if the folks who forced the executioner’s cup of hemlock upon Socrates were audio fanatics who hated questions.

It's not real its an illusion generated by your mind. If I play back a stereo recording in mono it doesn't have much depth though the mind tries to do so. Stereo is designed to make the mind imagine an image by using 2 spaced loudspeakers ea fed a bit differently. TV also doesn't have a moving image your mind thinks it does as it just looks at nonmoving still images flashed at it. Human senses are easily fooled. Are holograms real no? Its illusion.