What Does it Sound Like?

So what exactly does this great sonic quality sound like that I've been going on and on about in my other posts?

It is a full, rich-sounding aural landscape that has an unmistakeable 3D quality - not only from left to right, but also a depth from front to back - and a satisfying expansiveness of tone that makes it sound like the instruments and vocalists are in the room with you.

The first time I auditioned a stereo system that was capable of delivering an audiophile experience was many, many years ago. I was in a hi-end audio store listening to a pair of Rogers Studio 1a speakers (no longer in production, and if memory serves, about $2000 for the pair at the time), and the beginning of Mozart's 39th Symphony was starting to play.

My jaw was on the floor after about 5 seconds.

Not only did I have the very overwhelming sense that I was actually in the orchestra pit at the concert hall - the music was THAT acoustically enveloping - but I could actually tell that the violin soloist was standing 12 feet in front of me and 5 feet to the left! Not 8 feet in front of me, not 20 feet in front of me, twelve. I am not exaggerating. This is what a proper recording can reveal. And we are only talking about stereo speakers here, not surround.

And it doesn't just apply to classical music of course. Singers, drum kits, acoustic and electric guitars all have a sonic weight, depth, and physical placement to them that makes it sound like you are actually there in the room with them. You've never heard them sound so rich, beautiful and alive before. There is a 3D depth to the mix that makes you feel like you can step into the middle of it, and makes most other songs sound sonically flat in comparison. Gone is the veil between listener and loudspeaker that makes you aware that you are listening to prerecorded music, a veil that you didn't know existed until you hear a properly recorded song on a proper system.