We have spent hours of time, and many words, and used up lots of bandwidth on this forum talking about 'STEREO' sound, and after listening to some really good live music recently I was thinking to myself -'how much 'stereo' do we hear in a live performance?' ... do we really hear sounds coming from the right or the left? I don't think so ...
Now before I go any further, I want to state loud and clear that I KNOW MY RIG SOUNDS BETTER WHEN I AM USING TWO SPEAKERS, FED THROUGH BOTH THE LEFT AND RIGHT OUTS OF MY KB ! ... and I am sure that my audiences would be able to hear the difference if I used only one speaker ... but 'STEREO' ?!? ... I don't think anyone sitting more then a few feet away from those speakers is hearing anything from the right or left - it is only a combined sound they hear ...
Unless you have certain voices panned totally left or right, - and even then at some point the sounds are combined, or one side of the audience is hearing something the other side is not ...
I think the stereo aspect is more for the player, than the audience ... and I repeat: I KNOW MY RIG SOUNDS BETTER WHEN I AM USING TWO SPEAKERS, FED THROUGH BOTH THE LEFT AND RIGHT OUTS OF MY KB ! but as for the audience hearing left/right stereo, I don't think so ...
JMHO ...

Pan everything to the far left (like democrats), it doesn't work.

You will hear what is absent from stereo.. Effects, panning and balance of stereo samples can be heard only in stereo. And yes the entire audience can hear a difference.

Take a commercial CD that has quality (not all do).. pan it hard left or right... tell me if it sounds as good

Did I say anything about panning everything far left?
Or did I miss the point of your post?

Let’s take a look, we have a drummer in the centre of the stage with a singer in front, to the right we have a guitar player and to the left we have a bass Player, stand in the sweet spot (Centre) and you will hear the full band, walk over towards the bass player (On the left) and you will find his sounds starts to dominate (Gets louder) with the guitar player being more difficult to hear clearly, walk over to the right and the guitar player dominates with the bass player being less clear, if you have a mono system (Doesn’t matter the number of speakers) then when you play a recording of the band everything will sound at the same volume no matter where you are in the room, (Not natural) but if you use a stereo sound system (Placed left and right) then as the bass player will be coming mainly out the left speaker and the guitar player mainly out the right speaker, you will get the same effect as if you were listening to the band live, as the volume of the players varies depending on where you are in the room.
Believe it or not stereo was not designed to improve music (This was just a bonus) but to improve film, as when someone talking walked across the screen the voice always came from the centre which was very unnatural, (The ears did not hear what the eye saw) hence stereo came about to solve the problem and make things more realistic. (Of course in the real world we hear sounds from all around us, not just in front of us, which is why we now have multi-channel surround systems to fill in this gap)

Bill

I lived through the stereo thing years ago when I used two Eon 10” speakers on polls. Does a stereo set-up sound better? Yes it does. Did I like the way they looked, one speaker on each side? Yes I did, vey much so.
I now am using one Bose Compact. Would I go back to the set-up I loved so much? No, although stereo does sound better, the better is not worth carrying two speakers. Stereo does not improve that much. IMO.

John C.

While I am sure Fran and Bill are technically correct, I lean toward John's assessment. I also think it is mainly for the benefit of the performer. I like the sound of a Leslie in stereo, for example, but I am not convinced the audience perceives the difference. This may be a poor example, as most don't even know what a Leslie is.

The main difference between MONO & STEREO is Stereo provides you with ambiance and space from the sound source.
Example a single Sax player is not Mono from the sound point of view because his playing produces reflections providing you with openness.

I go with Stereo Always my ears have never lied to me ..!

Dito Dnj

Stereo all the time.
Not just my ears, but my audience notice that too.

My 2 Cents

Manuel