At This Time Can We Recreate Full Range Live Music In The Home?


I read on this web site some members claim they go to the symphony orchestra and are "convinced" their system reproduces the experience. I agree with vocals, light percussion, acoustic music, light jazz, the best systems come very close. My experience comes from being a semi professional drummer for 40+ years. I currently have acoustic and electronic drums in my home. I play in a huge open space with 20 foot cathedral ceilings. I think I can state that I know what live drums sound like. Can even the six figure systems reproduce the attack and decay of a 20 inch crash cymbal? I say "maybe" in the future but not now! What makes me laugh is we audiophiles myself included will spend many, many thousands of dollars trying to reproduce the sound of a $20 triangle or a $15 woodblock or a $10 shaker. Play the song Aja by Steely Dan. I can play on my system the drum solo by the great Steve Gadd at realistic volume levels-if you dare -but it is not the same as real drums!! I don’t know if I can’t convince people that are not musicians. Not putting non-musicians down. Quoting my dad, "You don’t have to be a horse to be a horse doctor." Another quote by John Lennon. Someone asked him what he was listening to. He responded, "Dripping water."  It would be interesting to know how many of the greatest producers/engineers are or are not musicians or vocalists.
Some statistics: Soft drums 105dB, hard drums up to 130dB, kick drum/timpani 106-111dB, ride cymbal 101dB, toms 110dB, ride bell 115dB, crash 113dB, snare 120dB, rimshot 125dB. I have a system that could produce 125dB, would I -NO WAY I value my #1 instrument -my ears. So the drums are playing at 125dB peaks, now add in the other 80+ members of the symphony orchestra-how loud now? I ask again, can we at this time reproduce accurately the power of a symphony orchestra in the home? For many of us this is the Holy Grail of being an audiophile - Keep Searching!
wweiss
Most home systems play as if your in the lobby of a venue getting the sound as if your in the same room as the players would not be good for your hearing if done daily.

Great equipment can give the illusion at lower volumes and this is what most audiophiles clamor for, to get the blood flowing but at realistic volumes. It can be done without being  stuck in the lobby but it takes great components.

Another thing to note you will never get the live experience at home simply because the way mic`s are placed within venues or studios, it might sound good or great but it will never be the same as being there, it will be different no matter what.
The Altec VOTT can easily do it! Full drum kit - no problem! Loud rock band - AC/DC - again no problem! That's why it remains a classic speaker!
with sufficient amplification, my standard reference the maggie tympani III speaker system can do it. i heard such demonstrated in the best [acoustically treated] room @ definitive hifi [seattle] in 1982. it was like being at the front of a hemisphere of "being there" [at the recording venue]. no real substitute for watts and/or sheer square footage of speaker radiating surface/wideness of dispersion. 
Wow, more of you are saying no than I would have expected. This tells me many have yet to hear a 1st class system. The best systems actually have better sound than you get at most concerts and easily match the volume levels if that is what you want. Everybody needs to go to a King Crimson concert then hear a top notch system play Monkey Mind. 
rh67, I have many excellent live recordings that replicate the live set up perfectly. But that is not the point. You do not have to match the live situation perfectly to have a "live like" experience. Studio recordings can be excellent but in many instances are surrealistic.