Bill: Well, at a concert hall, you can see the singers and musicians, right?

Pat: Right. So?

Bill: And you can hear the singing and the sound of the instruments coming from the singers and musicians, right?

Pat: Right. So?

Bill: And when you watch a concert movie on DVD, you can see images of the singers and musicians, right?

Pat: Right again. So?

Bill: Well, when you listen to an audio system, you can hear the singers and musicians, and you can imagine what they look like.

Pat: How can I see images with just an audio system?

Bill: You can see them in your mind.

Pat: I can imagine them?

Bill: Yep; when you hear singers, you can imagine the singers.

Pat: You mean when I hear Britney Spears I can see her in my mind?

Bill: Right. When the sound is really good, you can create a really good image of her.

Pat: You mean when I hear J. Lo's I can see her in my mind?

Bill: Right. When the sound is really good, you can create a really good image of her.

Pat: OK, so an image is a mental picture and imaging is the ability of a sound system to create mental pictures so what does staging mean?

Bill: Staging refers to the soundstage... where the images are.

Pat: OK, when I listen to Britney Spears songs on my boomox, she¹s in the boom box I mean, her image is in the boombox. Is that staging?

Bill: Yes; boomboxes usually create soundstages that stretch all the way from a speaker at one end to a speaker at the other end.

Pat: And when I listen to my little table radio with one speaker, the soundstage is that small little area right where the speaker is?

Bill: Yep, with one speaker reproducing all the sound, all the images are crowded together on one small stage.

Pat: Is that why David Clark of DLC Design says that you should put your speakers where you want your images to be?

Bill: Right.

Pat: With the 13-inch TV in my bedroom, it sounds like all the sound sources are in the TV. Is that good staging?

Bill: Well, a perfect TV would create the illusion that sound was coming from every sound source that you see on the screen, so your 13-inch TV does not create perfect imaging but at least the sounds are coming from a place that is not too far from the TV images.

Pat: My home stereo system places the images all the way from the left speaker to the right speaker and sometimes it seems that some images are close and some are further away is that better staging?

Bill:³Yes; it sounds like your home stereo system creates a soundstage that is wide and has some depth kinda like a real stage.

Pat: My friend Boomer has a system in his truck that puts all the images in the back. Is that good?

Bill: Well, different people have different opinions, but that doesn¹t sound very realistic. Most real stages are up front so the people in the audience can see without turning around in their seats.

Pat: In my car, all the images, even Britney's are near the floor. Is that good?

Bill: Not really. It might sound like you are in the balcony of a concert hall, but most people don¹t like to be in the balconyŠ with the singers and musicians at knee level.²

Pat: ³When some people talk about where images are placed, they use the word imaging¹ instead of staging. Why is that?

Bill: Good question because using the word imaging to mean placement means that you have to come up with some other word to describe the ability to create images.

Pat: So you call image creation imaging and image placement staging because that makes more sense than calling everything imaging?

Bill: Right. Creating an image, imagining an image, is imaging. Placing an image on the stage is staging.

Pat: I want my images up on my dashboard. How can I do that?

Bill: You could remove your A-pillars from either side of your windshield and replace them with speakers in very strong enclosures.

Pat: Would that be expensive?

Bill: Yes.

Pat: Are there other ways to get my images up where I want them?

Bill: Yes; because we localize images partly because of reflections from the inner part of the upper ear that attenuate the direct sound entering the ear canal, using an equalizer to boost a narrow band of frequencies can help create the illusion that speakers are higher than they really are.

Pat: Which frequencies need to be boosted to create that illusion?

Bill: It varies, but you could try boosting a narrow band between 9,000 and 13,000 Hz²

Pat: Hmmm, so I¹d have to buy a fancy equalizer and play around with it?

Bill: Yep; I'd recommend a serious parametric equalizer with very sharp Q.

Pat: Is there another way to raise my images and improve soundstaging?

Bill: Funny you should ask. I recently had dinner with Ken Persson, the president of CDT Audio.

Pat: What¹s the connection between raising my images and you and Ken having dinner?

Bill: Well, one subject he raised was images

Pat: So you just talked about imaging?

Bill: No, we didn¹t just talk. Ken demonstrated a new way to raise images so they are above the dashboard.

Pat: In his CDT Audio demo truck?

Bill: Yes.

Pat: Does it involve lowering the dashboard?

Bill: No, it involves adding Tweeters on the A pillars.

Pat: That¹s it?

Bill: No, in addition to adding Tweeters to the A pillars, the system adds special filtering.

Pat: Cool. Filters are good. Water filters keep fish out of our water supply and our bathtubs. And air filters keep dirt out of engines. What is this system called?

Bill: Stagefront.

Pat: So, did you throw your big guns with big bass at the system with Stagefront to make it sound bad?

Bill: You bet your double-barreled bazooka I did.

Pat:³How did the system sound with that old Dixieland jazz recording with the washboard?

Bill: You mean Firehouse Five Plus Two Live At Disneyland?

Pat: Right, with the washboard and the banjo and the tuba and the voices and piano and percussion.

Bill: Yes, Coney Island Washboard. That was the first test I threw at this system.

Pat: Did the system raise all the images out of the dashboard and onto the top of the dash?

Bill: Yes.

Pat: Were the images sharply focused?

Bill: Yes.

Pat: Where the images well placed on top of the dashboard from left to right?

Bill: Yes.

Pat: How high were the Tweeters in the A pillars?

Bill: About 3 inches above the dash.

Pat: Were they pointed straight back towards the back?

Bill: No, they were pointed almost directly at each other.

Pat: Like, across the dashboard?

Bill: Yep. And the system sounded great, except for some distortion on a few specific piano, vocal, and electric-guitar notes.

Pat: Did you listen at high levels?

Bill: As always.

Pat: Did you listen carefully and critically?

Bill: As always.

Pat: The images of the musicians in the Firehouse Five Plus Two jazz band were sharply focused in the windshield?

Bill: They were, from cymbals to tuba.

Pat: From trumpet to washboard?

Bill: And piano to banjo.

Pat: Did a smile creep across your face like the shadow of night creeping across the face of this fair earth?

Bill: You can bet an entire Oreo cheesecake it did.

Pat: Did the trumpet at stage left sound higher than the washboard on the right?

Bill: Amazingly, it did, and that was really cool.

Pat: Was the banjo just to the right of the left A pillar?

Bill: Yes, and it was sharply focused, like the strings were nice and tight.

Pat: Was there an openness to the sound?

Bill: Yes, and an airiness too like the windshield had been freshly cleaned.

Pat: Did the system sound crisp and clean?

Bill: Yes, and it was easy to listen to it, even with tracks I have heard many times.

Pat: Were the voices and the whistle sharply focused?

Bill: Sharp as a needle, but easier to find than a needle in a haystack²

Pat: Were all the pieces of the drum kit together, or was the bass drum at your knees, the tom-toms in the dash, the snare up higher, and the cymbals up too high?

Bill: Nope.

Pat: Nope?

Bill: Nope, it sounded like a small drum kit on the dash being played by a drummer the size of a Ken doll.

Pat: You mean Ken like in Ken and Barbie?

Bill: Right. Ken Persson was sitting to my right.

Pat: Was the image of the washboard clearly distinguishable?

Bill: Yes, and it even seemed that I could see Ward Kimball playing the washboard.

Pat: Was he wearing blue jeans?

Bill: Yes, and a red-and-white checked shirt.

Pat: Boy, this is good imaging. Was he wearing a hat?

Bill: Yep, a straw hat.

Pat:³And a purple feather boa around his neck?

Bill:³Don¹t be silly.

Pat: How about the other speakers in the system?

Bill: Coaxials in the doors, but I didn¹t hear any sound coming from them.

Pat: So all the images were on the dash?

Bill: Yes; all the sounds seemed to come from between the A pillars.

Pat: Were the different voices distinct from each other, or did they sometimes blend together as if the singers were in a very large blender?

Bill: They were always distinct from each other, even when they were close together on the stage and singing in unison.

Pat: Singing in unison is singing the same notes at the same time?

Bill: Yes, and the same words.

Pat: Singing in harmony is singing higher or lower notes at the same time, right?

Bill: Right.

Pat: OK, so the CDT Stagefront system passed the Firehouse Five Plus Two test. What did you try next?

Bill: Victor Wooten.

Pat:³You mean the disc Show Of Hands?

Bill: None other.

Pat: That¹s a killer.

Bill: Didn¹t kill this CDT system.

Pat: Not even with the incredibly rich timbre of the harmonics of Victor Wooten¹s bass guitar?

Bill: Right.

Pat: It sounded like a bass guitar?

Bill: Right. Like a bass guitar being played by Victor Wooten on the dashboard of a pickup truck.

Pat: I¹ll be darned.

Bill: Yep, track 1 created the image of Victor Wooten sharp and clear and on the dash.

Pat: Well focused?

Bill: As well focused as an ad for Kodak film.

Pat: Where was the image of Victor Wooten?

Bill: About six inches to the right of the left A pillar.

Pat: You were in the driver¹s seat?

Bill: Right.

Pat: Did you give it the killer bass track from Bass Ecstacy by Bass Erotica?

Bill: Yes, I played Intro; It¹s Live.²

Pat: Did the Tweeters explode?

Bill: Nope.

Pat:³Did the really low bass notes come from the floor or the back of the truck?

Bill: Nope.

Pat: Were there any images lower than the top of the dashboard?

Bill:³Yes, some of the lower synth notes seemed to come from the upper part of the dash.

Pat: The vocals were on and above the dash?

Bill: Yes. And the vocals were titillating.

Pat: Scintillating?

Bill: That too.

Pat: Did the system have loud low bass?

Bill: No, not really, but that wasn¹t the fault of the add-on Stagefront system.

Pat: Since it is an add-on system, you don't need to get rid of any part of your system?

Bill: Right. You just add the Stagefront components like adding a cherry to a scoop of ice cream.

Pat: So the images from Intro, It¹s Live¹ were not as high as those on the Coney Island Washboard¹ track?

Bill: Right, but placement was still impressive.

Pat: It is a tough track.

Bill: Yep, I thought the system would choke like a cat swallowing a phone book.

Pat: Did you try that piano arpeggio track from the SRD test disc?

Bill: The one with every note on the piano from low to high?

Pat: Yes, that one.

Bill: The system handled it great.

Pat: Amazing. Most systems create the unfortunate illusion of the piano moving from the back of the vehicle to the front.

Bill: I hate when that happens.

Pat: ³Or they create the unfortunate illusion that the piano is moving from the floor of the vehicle up the dashboard.²

Bill:³RightŠ like a musical spider crawling up from the footwells.

Pat: Did the source of the piano notes seem to move when played through the Stagefront system?

Bill: Yes, from left to right.

Pat: From where to where?

Bill: From left of center to right of center.

Pat: As if the piano keyboard were on the dashboard?

Bill: Yes. Amazing. I¹ll have to check to see if that track is stereo or mono.

Pat:³Did you play that sad song from Salamander Pie by Jay Leonhart?

Bill: You mean ŒChanticleer,¹ the sad song about the piano player and the nude dancer?

Pat: Yes. That is so sweet and sad.

Bill: Yes, and it sounded great, but I heard some distortion on some vocal transients.

Pat: Was it lovely, sad, and clear?

Bill: Yes. And the images were on the dash.

Pat: What did you see?

Bill: I could see a piano, a singer, and a guy playing a stand-up acoustic bass.

Pat: Anything else?

Bill: I caught glimpses of a guy playing piano and a girl dancing without any clothes on.

Pat: Wow.

Bill: Each note was crystal clear.

Pat: As clear as the windshield?

Bill: Clearer.

Pat: Where were the images placed?

Bill: All images were on or well above the dash, but not too high.

Pat: It would be weird if people played piano and danced on the ceiling, I guess.

Bill: I guess so.

Pat: The images were on the dash?

Bill: Yes, and very clear.

Pat: What about the distortion?

Bill: Some of the sibilants were spitty and hard, and some piano notes were a bit hard, but I was playing the system very loud.

Pat: What did you say when the song ended?

Bill: I said ŒWow.

Pat: Wow?

Bill: Wow.Pat: The stand-up acoustic bass was rich and full?

Bill: As rich as King MidasŠ and as full as I was after dinner.

Pat: And you could imagine the musicians on the dash?

Bill: Yes, I could imagine the musicians on the dash, and I could also imagine what the song was about.

Pat: It¹s a lovely song.

Bill: And a sad one.

Pat: Did Ken Persson play his CDT demo disc for you?

Bill: Yes. My discs are designed to find the flaws in a system...

Pat: And his disc is designed to show off the good points?

Bill: Yes, and it was impressive.

Pat: How so?

Bill: Well, one track created the image of an audience on the dashboard.

Pat: Cool, although a system with ambience speaker and rear-channel delay can create the image of an audience in the rear.

Bill: Yep, but this system focused on raising the images, not ambience.

Pat: What else did you hear?

Bill: Horns 6 inches above the dash.

Pat: What else?

Bill: With a Michael Ruff track, the bass was punchy and the percussion was sharp.

Pat: And all the images were on or above the dash?

Bill: You can bet your left eyebrow they were.

Pat: So your mind¹s eye was seeing more than just the parking lot in front of you?

Bill: Right. I could imagine things. This system created sharp and well-placed images.

Pat: Did these tracks have loud low bass?

Bill: I don¹t know, not that I heard.

Pat: ³What differences did you hear with different frequencies?²

Bill: With more highs, the images were higher.

Pat: And?

Bill: I was impressed that the low bass notes never lowered images into the dash.

Pat: Did you want the images to be higher?

Bill: No, that would have been unnatural.

Pat: Disconcerting?

Bill: Yes, like having a concert cancelled.

Pat: Does that disc have loud piercing electric guitar?

Bill: Yes, and it sounded a bit distorted when the system was cranked.

Pat: When you listened to that disc, did a smile creep across your face like fog creeping along a beautiful beach?

Bill: You can bet your swimsuit it did.

Pat: Where the images in the clear windshield?

Bill: Yes, they were not stuck in the black dash.

Pat: Final words on CDT's Stagefront system?

Bill: Wow.

Pat: That¹s only one word.

Bill: Yes, but it says a lot, Pat.

Pat: Nothing else to say?

Bill: OK, let me say that CDT¹s Stagefront system can raise your images and the quality of the soundstaging in your vehicle.

Pat: Sounds good to me.

Bill: Sounds good to me too. Let¹s go have some deep-fried ice cream.

_______________________________

Bill Burton is an editor-at-large of MOBILE ELECTRONICS magazine. He has been a sound-quality judge since 1993 for IASCA, USACi, CMAA, WAC, Rockford, and Sony, and has served on IASCA¹s Rules And Ethics Committee. He has been a professional listener since 1981, and he and his wife Ali have season tickets for front-row center seats for symphony concerts.