Not a great word when it applies to relationships, fine and proper describing sound detached from speaker boxes.
I've covered this topic before, yet it always bears restating in different words, in the hopes it will resonate with someone in a new way.
When you listen to your loudspeakers, sound should not appear to come from the cabinets themselves. Turn the lights off and the more difficult it is to pinpoint the source, the better you've succeeded in creating an illusion. It may seem counter intuitive that the very mechanism creating sound should be divorced from what it outputs, but that's the goal. A clever magic trick, like the phantom center channel floating between two speakers without benefit of a physical radiator.
The next time you play a record, CD or stream music to your system, turn the lights low or close your eyes and point to the sound's source. Your fingers should not be aimed at the expensive boxes making sound.
Not all recordings are as detached as others. For example, if a singer or instrument is close to the recording microphone, it will sound as if it comes from the box. And that knowledge helps us understand why sound should be divorced from the speaker.
I'll give you an interesting example tomorrow.
