Home HiFi better than Live?

I agree, rarely at home do people cough, talk, or spill beer on you. And I feel the benchmark of a live performance for my audio system is way too low. However, live music isn't about sonics. It's about sharing an experience with the person you are sitting with and the musicians. It's about the emotion that can happen at that momment, the possibility of magic. And in those rare instances when the band/orchestra is together, having fun, and in the groove, you can share in an experience that is truly phenomenal. (even when the house system costs a fraction of what yours does and sounds like crap).

Fwangfwang, I totally agree with you. I would rather listen to well recorded music than a live concert. With very few exceptions, the sonics of live concerts are horrible. And now that I have a nice system, it just sounds better. I think concerts are overpriced and overrated. Plus at home, I can read in the sweet spot or otherwise entertain myself while I enjoy the music. I've always been discontent to sit through concerts where I'm forced to concentrate on performers I can't even see because they're so far away, as the sound reverberates painfully throughout the stadium or whatever sonically improper place they're playing. A nice concert hall (like Copley in San Diego where I live) is an exception, however, and will beat my system any day of the week.

I don't know where you guys are going for concerts or what you like to hear, but I have never heard music in my listening room that was half as engaging as that of a live concert.
In a sense the music on an LP or CD is manufactured. Things are done in the studio which cannot happen in the concert hall i.e. over dubs or blending different recordings together to find the 'perfect' one to release on an unsuspecting public.
Any concert has the real orchestra or band playing in front of you. Gone are the manufactured sounds or the gimmics used in the studio.
I have sat in the back of an arena with bad acoustics for a Bob Dylan concert and loved every minute of it. I have been second row center stage for a more acoustic 'folk' concert and been totally lost in the experieince.
I have nearly 1000 recordings and not one of them is as much fun to listen to as the concerts were to attend.
Sonically they may have been superior, but watching your favorite musician being interviewed one 60 minutes is not nearly as much fun as chatting with them!!!

I mostly agree, I have rarely heard live detail and balance as good as I can get at home. But there are some performers who must be heard in person. For me the Allman Brothers, Jimmy Buffett and Grateful Dead are groups I love(d) in concert, but rarely hear a recording of through to the end.

If one can get good seats, the symphonic experience cannot be reproduced within my budget.

Since I have acquired some pretty good equipment, I find the annoyance of dealing with Ticketmaster and venues who see customers as problems to be controlled has radically shifted my music appreciation to the "good chair" from live.

That's why the great Glenn Gould stopped playing in concert halls. When it comes to SOUND alone a good high end system might be superior in many cases. But as you mentioned it is not only the sound that counts when we attend a concert, is it? I sometimes close my eyes in a concert and imagine sitting in front of my system evaluating the sound I am getting that very moment. The smaller the ensemble on stage the more often I prefer my system's sound to the one produced live. I would never consider not to concerts, however. Live is live after all.....