jl35 👈 Yes.
Two things come to mind reading through this thread, one- it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Second, I’m interested in music and the process of music not the process of cables and capacitors. My system exists only to deliver my music as good as it can get.
My wife and I do a good number of live events and plenty of Broadway as well. Rarely do I ever find myself critiquing the venue sound systems because, to use an overused phrase, it is what it is.
As jl35 mentioned above, I like small and medium sized venues and I have my local favorites like The Capital Theatre in Port Chester, The Beacon in Manhattan, Tarrytown Music Hall, Westbury Music Fair, Etc. Even NJPAC across the river. We’ll see someone like Natalie Merchant, one of my original favs, Paul Simon again over the summer, Kurt Elling any chance I get, Graham Nash, the magnificent Raul Malo who’s not doing well at the moment, the spectacular Robert Plant touring his new and pretty good album a few weeks back, we have Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Samara Joy- the list goes on and on. I’m just open to seeing people make music.. and I like getting out of the house and I’m sometimes tired of hearing recorded music come through the speakers. And I like looking at my happy, beautiful wife across the table.
And like a few of you, the driving at night and the parking thing...ugh, but, it’s often worth it. Get out a little more.