Anyone else prefer listening to their system more than a concert?

I worked painstakingly hard to get my system to a level where I don’t feel guilty choosing my own setup over live shows. At home, I get the sound exactly the way I like it, no bad seats, no crowd noise, no harsh room acoustics. Just me, the music, and a system tuned to hit that emotional spot every single time.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the energy of a concert. But when I want to really hear the details, the tone, the intimacy… my system at home gives me a connection that most venues just can’t match.

I generally prefer listening to my system for all the reasons given by the OP, plus my system sounds better than amplified concerts.

I occasionally attend local jazz performances, but there aren't many good shows or good-sounding venues where I live, and really not that many performers I'm interested in seeing, especially who come to my area.

I would be inclined to attend orchestral concerts, but rarely do orchestras program an evening of music I would want to hear, as I don't care for most 19th-century orchestral music, and that still seems to be the core of most orchestral repertoires.

There are a lot of folks that enjoy watching the performers. I do not. I typically close my eyes while at the symphony. I have some friends that think of themselves as musicians and watch intently. 

I have been to way over 100 concerts and I would say 6 were very good sounding. It’s the sound engineers that screw things up.

For a few decades now, the sound engineers have turned up the bass way too load and the music is very very loud. The best concerts have been some amphitheaters in the hills and at some wineries. 

I used to live for going to rock concerts - they were a peak experience, and between 1969 and 2020, I’ve seen many hundreds (used to be in the music biz too, so got a lot of free tickets for awhile).

The 2020 lockdown kind of coincided with me turning 70, and I’d been slowing down significantly anyway, so unless I know somebody in the band, I’ve stopped going to gigs. But probably for me more to do with age than anything else.