does a stereo system sound like live music ?

Hrrrumpf! Did I hear my name just invoke in vane?

The profound if not exactly novel question raised by Mr. Tennis is essentially undecidable. It belongs to the same class of propositions such as:

"How many anally retentive audiophiles can dance on the outer edges of my soundstage?"

In a more serious vein, we could analyze the issue until we turn blue in the face. It should be sufficient to say however, that the high end audio experience is qualitatively different from the live experience. It simultaneously far exceeds the beuty of a live performance and falls often short of it. While it gives me joy and awe, I shall pursue it. When it stops doing it, I will concentrate on other pursuits. . . . or at least I shall get my ear-canal cleaned up by a specialist.

Hmm, looks like to me our Dr. Pingpong is actually the one who is enjoying the show of the little golden carps in the pond swimming frantically after the mechanical froggie! 'member guys and gals. . . keep smilin' or the old ticker may start a'rattlin'!

Mrtennis, that would depend on your definition of 'better'. Having been into music for the last 45 years, I am less and less sure of what that means. One thing I know is that , in order for me to have the same acoustic experience listening To Lara St. John playing Bach on the Violin whilst being at a live concert, I would need not only to be on stage, but close enough for the proximity to become socially unacceptable in most musical circles, with the added danger of repeatedly experiencing the thrust of her bow in my eyeballs, or her elbow in my solar plexus, depending on orientation.
On the other hand, as pointed out by others, the live experience has an sensorial, social and emotional complexity and personal implications that reach far beyond the simple sonics of the source, and which are not, by definition, reproduceable electronically.
Thus, when I think of the live performance of Carlo Chiarappa Playing Bach's Ciaccona in D minor on his Stradivari under the 16th century portico of Groznjan in Croatia, I know my experience can't be ever repeated nor reproduced. Yet, was it simply the sound of his fiddle, reverberating from the vaulted ceiling which made it unique, or was this combined with Chiarappa's stage presence in checkered shirt-sleeves standing on the worned flagstones, the arched portico itself in the ancient little village square, the youth from both sides of the Iron Curtain congregated there to do and breathe music for three unforgettable weeks, the summer night with its own sounds. Or is it perhaps the longing and the 30-year-old memory of it all?

And of course Dr. Pingpong is not even considering that his beloved 'live' music is but a pale instantiation of the infinite variety of potential much superior performances inferred by the composer's musical score. In turn the score is but a pale instantiation of the original musical thought conceived by the composer. Hence applying the odd syllogistic pingpongism, the recorded performance is at least three order of magnitude inherently inferior to the original abstract musical conception. As a former classical music composer this inherent superiority of what's in my mind fills me with undisguised pride and gloting. Yet, as a lover of beauty, wherever it may be found, I just know that this is just a bunch of unadulterated hogwash! Which just reminds me, I better run and reconnect my system, after todays glorious audio extravaganza at Arnie's (Babybear) place. Just listening to the Music Of The Spheres in the depth of my mind is just not for me any longer.. . and how many times did I repeat the word 'just' just in this post?