adamdea;684930 Wrote: 
> But how is there any information about height?

This seems like the essence of the problem in creating (the illusion
of) a 3D soundstage.  Without height information the soundstage can, at
best, be two dimensional.

The fact that our ears are arranged on an axis running from left to
right, and we don't have a third ear on a vertical axis, means that
vertical placement of REAL sounds must be achieved through a different
mechanism from that which allows us to place sounds laterally.  I'd
guess that the mechanism that we use for vertical placement depends
partly on sound transmission through our skulls, and partly on subtle
differences due to the shape of our ears.  A sound from above us
travels through different parts of our skull and ear than a sound from
below us, and experience allows us to differentiate these effects.

If this is true, then in theory it ought to be possible to reproduce a
sound that sounds like it has travelled through different parts of the
skull and ear, but I very much doubt that anyone has managed to achieve
a proper understanding of these differences so that they can be,
effectively, added to a recording.

That being the case, I'd have to agree that any illusion of height
coming from stereo speakers must be due to our brains creating a mental
image of the performers.  In fact, that correlates somewhat with my own
experience - the soundstage becomes a lot clearer once I let myself get
carried away and actually try to picture the performers in front of me. 
Moreover, I think that with a small effort of will I can imagine them in
different places (depths, heights) and maintain the illusion of this new
arrangement.


-- 
chill
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