Role of soundstage in sound quality?

It definitely plays a big role.  However there's a lot of different personal definitions of what soundstage really is.  Some people categorize it by the raw depth of the sound, some categorize it as just the imaging, some categorize it as a mix of multiple things.  I kinda think it's hard to judge a soundstage in relevance to the way it's used with speakers, because the driver positions are on either ear, and there is no natural playback of the original imaging unless the recording as binaural.  That doesn't stop headphones from being more spacious sounding than others, though.

A good spacial sound will make things more clearer and defined.  Open headphones leak sound naturally so they usually have better soundstage.  M50s have really poor soundstage, and that makes them sound very cluttered and sloppy compared to a lot of other headphones.

Soundstage is one of the basic elements of 'sound quality'

Soundstage in closed headphones is generally not comparable with soundstage in open headphones

Open headphones will win that game almost every time

I agree.  Open phones are the way to go on this dimension.

It's all about personal preferece. Some focus on the soundstage, some focus on neutrality, some focus on a certain part of the spectrum, others focus the sound as a whole. There are also people who would regard non-SQ issues to be more important, such as comfort, isolation, leakage and looks.

To me sound stage = instrument separation

To everyone else sound stage = concert like surround feel

To me as long as a headphone has good instrument separation it's a good headphone. You really only need an impressive sound stage if you listen to classical. To me the instrument seperation is excellent on the hd 25 1 ii. At least its fine for me. The cans deserve their praise ime. But then again i like my sound to be aggressive and feel like I'm in the center of it. Lets just say i don't care that much about sound stage.

My music genre if your wondering is heavy metal.

I think instrument separation is related to soundstage, while the general definition of soundstage is the imaging and size.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingpage 

I think instrument separation is related to soundstage, while the general definition of soundstage is the imaging and size.

Agreed.

In speakers as well as headphones

Instrument separation is a quality of driver speed and decay for me.  It's the ability to make distinctions between different instruments of brass, strings or woodwinds.  The imaging does go a long way in helping sort that out, as well.  But for me, speakers' imaging plays a much larger roll than headphones for that sort of thing.  

Yeah the M50's soundstage is kinda bad.  It's more of an 'in-your-head' type of sensation, where a lot of higher end headphones give you out of head sensation.  Never to the point of in front of you like speakers do, but if you get the right recordings-- binaural or not-- with a headphone that's spacious enough, and you'll get a great deal of ambience.  Closed headphones in general don't have good quality in general when it comes to that; Denon D2000 being the best of the closed cans I've heard for soundstage.  You'd have to get an open-backed headphone.

Binaural/Dobly headphone/CMSS 3D with some cheap headphone can sound better than good stereo speakers, no?  One is surround, and the other is stereo.

Soundstage can have a lot of factors. Yes, being able to isolate each part of the song so you can follow it. There maybe could be too much soundstage.

The issue is that open headphones do have great soundstage but at the risk of loosing a little PRaT as well as slam. So you have to have all the little parts of the package.

Soundstage is also going to be affected by your source and amp too. The recording process is really the most determining factor affecting soundstage. 

Some headphones are even going to have a muddy little fog in one area of the soundstage, meaning the whole soundstage is not clear. Or even a character which seems to color the whole soundstage. All these things are not perfect but can be learned to live with if you like the other qualities of the headphones. There is nothing more boring than a narrow soundstage. It can take the life out of a stereo image and make it seem unmoving and dry. At the same time, when done right a soundstage gives the feeling of an alternate musical living space where you can spend a lot of quality time as different things are always moving and changing. 

Sound stage is hugely important if you want to hear details. It's part of the reason why people use speakers sometimes. The Grado 325i failed to impress in an audition because no matter how well it could produce detail or sound, I couldn't hear it because the the details had no space to breathe.