You have touched on, but perhaps circled around the main issue. In a concert setting, be it a symphony orchestra or a piano bar, there is no real sense of imaging, only a sense of presence. There are so many reflections in the concert hall that imaging in the hi-fi sense isn't possible. So what is imaging? Exactly what the recording engineer wants it to be. Almost all modern recordings are multi-mic'ed, usually with a mic for each performer and another one for his guitar. So, in the mix-down, any performer can be placed anywhere on the sound stage. We are not reproducing the performance, we are reproducing the mix.

Any decent speaker can be made to image from well to excellent by proper room placement or room treatment. Eliminate the early reflections and the speaker images. One would have to actually try to make a speaker that has inherently poor imaging. Presence is another issue, and is generally the opposite of imaging. The music seems to come from everywhere. This is the Bose effect, and I use it to impress the unwashed when demoing my system. I take a recording with pretty good imaging, like AKUS, and set my HT receiver to Pro-Logic with a significant delay. Presto -- Presence. They love it!

I'm, sorry, but I feel that a quest for imaging falls into the category of listening to the equipment rather than listening to the music.

Bob