OK, back OT.... (or what the topic has morphed into )

Personally, I don't use stereo to present an overly wide image to the audience. I keep most everything panned up the center, and only wide pan things that are doubled. I usually pan my drums back towards center, so you DON'T get the '40 foot wide drummer' syndrome.

But one thing I think that really improves with the width is the effects. The reverbs and choruses sound great spread as wide as they can (while the main sound is still fairly centered). And wide spread synth sounds. The spread on these can make a Pink Floyd tune HUGE! And this is apparent pretty much anywhere in the room, other than with your ear stuck in one of the stacks.

Not that I use stacks, anyway! A couple of 12" JBL SR's on poles and a sub, and a duo act usually mean that the speaker system is closer than most band PA's. I might go further apart this year, after buying a pair of Mackie SRM150's as stage monitors (they mount on the mike stands), but I'll have to see if having them spread wider helps or hurts...

I play outdoors quite a bit, so having a certain amount of realistic space around the instruments and vocals is needed when you don't have any room ambiance to deal with...

I am still not sure what the storm in the teacup is all about. Let's face it. What's the difference between a mono PA and a stereo one? ONE MORE SPEAKER. That's it. Not exactly a ground shattering, back breaking addition.

Oh, unless you have a Bose PAS, where the additional speaker turns into almost an entire second PA, with multiple parts, bases, subs, (and an almost doubling of price) whatever... Maybe this, and not the sonic difference between mono and stereo is what is REALLY turns PAS users off stereo?