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

mitch2

Oh Mitch, me neither. Good friend of mine just flew out to California to hear them again. What's different is the ear strain. After our concerts at 112- 113 db, there is no ear fatigue. No ringing,,,,, It's so clean. You can sit and hear every note from whatever person you prefer. Want to listen to Timmithy B Smith, just go ahead and listen to his every Bass note, Love the drums, go ahead and listen to every cymbal, or every different horn. Mabe the saxophone.  My personal favorite is the dual leads, love when they do that. The problem is ...material. It's really hard to find live recordings that are so clean and separated. Most Rock disc's sound like crap. A good system will pick them apart. You begin listening to the "system" instead of the music. We have a Pretenders disc, Live in LA that is greatly recorded, but most I never play because of the mix.

On the concerts, we go to concerts monthly.
Our local Midland Theater has a lot of bands, 38 Special, Foghat, Kenny G, George Thorogood, Mike Cambell and the Dirty Knobs, John Waite were all there last summer and we attended. We have tickets for GTLO, Get the Led Out... the best Zepplin Tribue Band in existence, and Black Jacket Symphony doing the complete Pink Floyds The Wall.       

@mitch2 

https://us.loopearplugs.com

Different listening. Most "rock" is too loud for the room. For example, we went to hear Etta James at Carnegie Hall years ago. Susan Tedeshi opened- she was far too loud for the room, and overloaded it- it was a blob of sound that didn't allow you to distinguish vocals or anything else. Etta's band gets on-- they knew how to play the room, she didn't have the power she did at her height, but it was great. 

King Crimson at Bass Hall here in Austin--  powerful, three drummers, Tony Levin on Stick bass, the sound guys knew what they were doing-- you could feel the "thwack" of bass but the sound was not distorted. 

Ditto, Lyle Lovett at ACL several years ago-- it's a good room, and they played it perfectly-- Russ Kunkel and Leland Sklar- marvelous. 

So, if somebody can play live without blasting me, I'm down. Hi-fi isn't the same. 

Whether I want to put up with the rigors of live show is a different issue. Here in Austin, we have a lot of festivals. I don't do those. I like a comfy chair, easy access, no pogo-ing. 

Did catch ZZ Top at the Majestic in San Antonio when Dusty Hill was still on the planet. They were great.

I've heard a lot of bands over the years in different venues, from Jim Morrison to the Talking Heads in a pizzeria before they became famous. Little Feat w/ Lowell, opened by Roy Buchanan. I would not have traded those experiences for anything.

Did go to the 02 for Zep in 08. Twas cool. 

@ezwind - always seemed to me that the bands who put the most effort and money into getting the very best sound possible were the Grateful Dead - right from the beginning; Owsley did a lot more than make great acid - and Pink Floyd (and solo offshoots). 

The last live concert I enjoyed was Mattawa Voyager Days, in Ontario. It was around 8 years ago, I am 68 now.  We had the wrist bands for entrance to the music area, and realized it Noisy, Crowded, Dusty and Difficult to see the band.  This event runs for 2 nights and then on Sunday. 
We returned on Saturday with out kayaks, and headlights that you can use when cross country skiing at night, or hiking. We paddled out into the Ottawa River, and just drifted in the currents and eddies, keeping the music far enough away to enjoy the volume level, the lack of crowds, no dust and found out that you could get a nice reverb effect from the hills on the Quebec side of the river.  Awesome.
Later, around 11 pm, a fireworks display was scheduled, so, we paddle closer to shore, and watched the fireworks land in the river, in the area we had just left. It is really cool to watch the fireworks falling into the water, when at water level, and getting the reflection and the fireworks.
Since then, most concerts are over priced, noisy, bad acoustics, crowded, etc. etc.. I could buy every CD ever made by most bands, and still have a lot of change left over.  
Sue Foley, playing at a small bar in Lavigne Tavern, Lavigne, was awesome. Seating for around 100 people... good time.