Solving the "complex music problem"?


I have noticed that, regardless of the system, simple music (i.e. music with only a few sounds at the same time, such as a solo instrument) sounds way better than what I'll call here "complex music", meaning music like symphony that has a lot of instruments all playing different sounds at the same time. I'm assuming that this is an inherent problem for audio equipment. In a live symphony, you might have, say, 15 different unique instruments (i.e. counting all the violins as 1 unique instrument), each of which is vibrating in a different way; but in a speaker, each driver might be trying to reproduce 10 of those sounds at the same time. So each driver is a single physical object trying to vibrate in 10 different ways at the same time. The result is that the music sounds muddy, all the different parts blend together and you lose a lot of the detail.

I have a number of questions about this that I'm hoping all you experts can help me with.

1. Is there an established name or term for this issue? 

2. Do you think my diagnosis of the problem above is correct? Or is something else going on?

3. Although this is always a problem, it's a much bigger problem on some systems than others. Are there some types of components, or some brands, that are particularly good (or bad) when it comes to this issue?

4. To what extent is this issue related to the components you have as compared to speaker placement and room acoustics?

5. To me, this is a huge issue. But I don't see it discussed all that often. Why do you think that is? Or, perhaps, it is being discussed all the time, but people are using a term I don't recognize? (hence question 1).  

 

Full disclosure, I asked a related question under the heading "need amp recommendations for more separation of instruments" and got a lot of super helpful responses. I'm very grateful to everyone who took the time to respond there. That discussion was focused on a solution to my particular problem. Here I'm hoping to have a more general discussion of the issue. I know it's bad form to post the same question twice, but in my mind, this is a significantly different question. Thanks.

ahuvia

On classical I used Winston Ma DECCA box set FIM label. This box set will really test your system if indeed is capable playing complex music.

Why do you think many Demos and Audio Show exhibits use music like Dianna Krall and a few Piano notes? They rarely play Complex Music. I have fun with my favorite store owner when he puts out videos with Simple music.

I have never heard a system where I could hear every instrument in an orchestra, especially at louder volumes. Even with headphones. There’s something about live music, with a good sound system, in a well designed venue 

Agree with @dcoffee.  No matter what the recorded performance is, there is always just one complex signal going down your speaker wires. It's the sum of what was laid down for that channel.  Unless one's electronics are that unresolving, I'm thinking that the speaker driver is usually the limiting factor in accurate reproduction.  It would seem to be the more difficult task.  

@curiousjim 

I have never heard a system where I could hear every instrument in an orchestra, especially at louder volumes.

I don't know of a one size fits all solution, even at a live performance you need good seats for that. That problem has been studied by Tomlinson Holman and they did a lot of research into great halls and acoustics. The first reflection points and the space above the performers are key and he developed a system of speaker placement to replicate that, check this out: