Detailed sound? Real?


I have read about many audiophiles wanting more detail and air around the instruments to improve realism. usually, when i hear a system with these qualities, the sound is almost always thin and fatiguing. When I hear live music, it never sounds like air around the instruments and detailed. Most detailed systems sound way too detailed. When i hear live music, there is a sense of air, but not around the instruments. Actually, many times it sounds natural and mono. It seems to me that detailed systems are probably the most unrealistic in audio. Yesterday I heard a live performance of a piano and sax. The piano was so muffled sounding, much more so than on any system I have recently heard. The sax sounded more detailed, but still not like the stereos portray it. I think the secret to listening is to find something that sounds good and that you can listen to without fatigue. Natural Timbre, color and good bass, not overblown but good, gets you closer to the real thing IMHO
tzh21y
What do people mean by live music anyway? I'm certain live music reproduced through some crappy music is not the ultimate benchmark that people evaluate their system against, right?
Very well formulated conclusion. I undertand your sentiments exactly. Though many live events sound like crap. Sure its great to see the artists perform, but seldom do you have an engineer who knows how to dial in the perfect live event. So, with that in mind, we all seek to recreate this event in our own listening rooms and become the engineer. Now, when you do go to a live concert that can represent the quality of the original recording (see what I mean)...then the experience is memorable from every single perspective. Thats when you go home and post your gear on AudiogoN. Pink Floyd, Genesis, and a few other bands know how to BETTER the recorded originals when performing live.
Recorded musics are mostly closed-mic whereas live performances are always listened from a distance. Air is very good at filtering out high frequency. That is why the further away from the instrument, the duller it sounds. If you stood at where the mic was, you would hear far more details. Therefore, recorded musics sound more detail than live performances.