Stereo illusion?

[smittims]

Do you ever feel, when playing a mono recording through a stereo system, that you're hearing stereo?

I'm not referring to the 'electronic stereo' common in the 1970s, nor the 'accidental stereo' revealed in recent years by Lani Spahr and others. This is when what is quite certainly a mono recording is played through a stereo system and I hear a spaciousness, first violins on the left, trombones and tuba on the right, etc.

Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing it?

[gradus]

Phase differences plus imagination?

[Forget It (U2079353)]

A real test would be listen to the mono with headphones.
With speakers the room resonance might get interpreted as a 'surround sound' component
- perhaps due to acoustic differences in the reflection of bass/treble from left/right far/near features.
I find mono never deviates far from in the centre of my head when heard with headphones.

[Bryn]

A real test would be listen to the mono with headphones.
With speakers the room resonance might get interpreted as a 'surround sound' component
- perhaps due to acoustic differences in the reflection of bass/treble from left/right far/near features.
I find mono never deviates far from in the centre of my head when heard with headphones.

Very often, mono recordings are presented via two nominally identical channels. It is just possible that the actual dynamic levels of each such channel varies due to unintentional vagueries of the carrier system, thus shifting the centre of the sonic image. However, I think it more likely that is string sounds wander or appear to have left or right positioning, which may be due to some sort of psycho-acoustic effect of acoustic memory of standard orchestral layout. After all, the eardrums and their associated ossicles only constitute the first stage of converting sound waves into what we hear. The brain does the processing into what we perceive.

[smittims]

Thanks, some good ideas here.

[richardfinegold]

Pristine Audio uses a proprietary technology that they call Ambient Stereo. Essentially they add a lot of ambience in that devotees claim provides a sense of spaciousness, or air between the instruments.

[cloughie]

Is there now a 21st Century Phoney Stereo around when listening through ‘smart speakers’, small bluetooth speakers and soundbars?