Why I like my home system better than live music


Not sure which forum to place this, but since speakers are the most important in the audio chain besides the room, I'll start here. I know most audiophiles including me set live music as the reference to guage reproduced music in their homes. But I've come to the conclusion I enjoy my home system better than most live music. I can count on one hand musical venues that I think absolutely outclasses any system I've heard, but in most cases live music is just sounds bad. Is it just me who feels this way?
dracule1
I'm not debating what is more enjoyable. Everyone's idea of enjoyable is personal. I don't think that's the true intention of the thread, but I didn't start the thread, so what do I know?

The simplest way for me to put it is that there's a presence to live instruments that is lacking in recorded music.
Kbark, reasons why one enjoys his home system more than live music IS the original intent of the thread.
I tend to agree that classical is best appreciated live. Rock is a crap shoot. Smaller venues are better. If it's too loud and yes most are I wear earplugs which hurts the sound but allows me to keep my hearing. I used to enjoy rock more when I had a few beers. Now I can't stay up that late. Most of the up-and-coming bands play small bars and often don't come on until late. What self-respecting 50 year old wants to put himself through waiting half the night to hear music at 1 am in the morning and then drive home? I'd rather have a half-decent night's sleep and listen in the morning with a cup 'o tea and a clear head.
"The simplest way for me to put it is that there's a presence to live instruments that is lacking in recorded music. "

I don't agree with this statement as a rule, but I think there are four reasons why this is often true in most peoples' listening rooms:

1. Venue. Most people do not listen to recorded music in rooms as large as live music is played in. You can't have live-sounding "big sound" in a small room.

2. Volume level. Live music is often too loud for a listening room, and we all know (or should know) that volume level is an incredibly important factor in how anything sounds.

3. Putting the usual chest-beating stuff aside that is normally posted on Audiogon, the vast majority of audio systems are not capable of reproducing live sound levels, so they can't sound live. Reproducing a solo grand piano, for example, is unlikely to sound realistic if you have a pair of 10" woofers that have to reach well into the midrange.

4. Most speakers aren't very good. They have colored frequency responses, or they have non-optimal dispersion characteristics or other anomalies that color the sound.

On the other hand, if you have a large room and large, accurate, low-distortion speakers with a lot of amplifier power behind them, on a few really outstanding recordings you can get surprisingly close to live sound. In my experience, with some solo instruments, to the point that you can't tell the difference. Of course, the difficulty of maintaining that illusion increases in proportion to ensemble size, so even chamber music is out of reach for most of us. But a solo guitar? Been there, done that, you can get eerily close.

Originally i thought you were comparing live instruments to a recording of live instruments on your system. It appears you are comparing a live rock concert to the same music being played on your hi-fi system ...

OK, pack 60 people into your listening room and then let me know if it is still better than the live performance..

:)