I hear depth too, in live music. Just not the way stereo misrepresents it. I made this observation 50 years ago, listening to hif compared to hearing the Philadelphia Orchestra live, or acoustic music in a coffee house, for that matter. I easily hear depth phenomena in hifi systems. It's just not very closely related to the way depth is cued naturally in live music. It tickles; it's kind of pleasant. More to the point, stereo synthesizes fake depth in situations, like multi-tracked rock music, where the band members weren't even in the same room. It's fundamentally bogus but endearing. You think it's better to have it than not, but I don't think that's correct when choices for depth undermine the more fundamental and realistic representations of relative horizontal soundstaging and vertical axis placements. Screw those up to get depth? No way. Hifi listeners get focused on the minor things over the major things. Like stepping over dollars to pick up dimes because they're shiny.
Yeah, planars 8 feet from the wall -- been there; done that. KLH Nines, Quad ESLs, Magnepans and Magneplanars. Dynamic drivers 1/3rd the way into the room? Nah. Look, I've written over and over, I am opposed to the dedicated listening room. It's killed the mass constituency for hifi. It's effete and the former mass constituency for hifi can't relate to it. Keith is going to have his hifi in the living space of the house. He has practical realities for using that space. Doesn't everyone? I'm just not going to make a room dysfunctional by placing speakers 1/3rd of the way into the room. My speakers are 18" from the wall behind them, in both systems, because that's what works functionally. Could I pull them further into the room? Sure. Not a chance I will though. The rest sorts itself. In the '90s, the very good Audio Physic line was designed to be placed in the middle of a room. Sounded fab in my friend's hifi shop; disaster in a domicile. They hosed the utility of any room you put them in. The sale wasn't made.
I'm as tickled by the synthetic depth of stereo hifi as anyone; I just don't indulge it to the point of chasing it unnaturally. Focus on the fundamentals and take the ear candy you get as consequence. It would be silly to put synthetic depth first, only to undermine everything more vital to creating the illusion of fidelity.
Phil