How to get the impact of a live concert?

It's all about physical compression that happens in the speakers and the room itself that reveals playback vs. live experiences to our ear/brain and there is simply not much we can do about it. It's simply physics that imparts this limitation. Loud won't cut it, it just exacerbates the compression factor. Every room and speaker system has an optimal or maximal loudness level beyond which this compression just increases (usually experienced as "beaming" from the tweeter/midrange drivers). Most speakers have an enclosure or driver limitation, or both, beyond which compression increases logarithimcally and again, there's nothing we can do about it. Some absorption can help reduce phase cancellation and increase dynamic range in the room, but again, only so far.

I have simply accepted this and have learned that if I want live, I go see and hear live.

Hey, sitting here listening to a live recording of Black Sabbath, i have no
problem with not actually being there, at least with my eyes closed.

It's really kinda silly some of the things we audio kooks might sweat about.

Size matters,

Modern stereo can reproduce small ensembles, single instruments, small groups with astonishing clarity, and presence.

Imagine fitting them in your room love, live, thats how I see it.

Now Imagine fitting 3 rock stars with their guitars, a drum set Live in your room, no amplification (what kind of havoc it would cause with acoustics) .... they will be squished against each other on one corner and the drums on the other corner (of your 15 x 20 ft room) ... It gets pretty loud pretty quick.

Now lets get the LA phil in your room- (from google)

A modern orchestra has about 100 instruments

The string section includes 34 violins, 12 violas, ten cellos, eight double basses, and two harps, for a total of 66 instruments.
The woodwind section includes three flutes, three clarinets, three oboes, three bassoons, one double bassoon, one piccolo, one English horn, and one bass clarinet, for a total of 16 instruments.
The brass section includes four trumpets, six French horns, three trombones, and one tuba, for a total of 14 instruments.
The percussion section contains a variety of instruments, including four kettledrums, and such instruments as the chimes, xylophone, triangle, and cymbals.

Physics dictates to reproduce a concert exactly as it was recorded, you need the room of appropriate size, transducers which can reproduce the energy (this is what you would call dynamics) of over 100 players. Otherwise its just a window.

Kind Regards

07-12-12: Rlwainwright
I think the single most important element that defines the difference between the sound produced at home vs a live venue is the room itself. In most situations at a live show, the % of direct vs reflected sound is much greater at the live show - unless you are seated next to or just infront of a wall.

It's the room, baby!

bingo. In monkeying around with a dedicated room recently, it became very clear how parasitic most of our "listening environments" can be. I was able to get more snap out of a Marantz AV amp and cheesy, $300 Klipsh, Best Buy speakers in a dedicated room than my big rig in an untreated room. Mechanical grounding or acoustic "energy management" is important somehow in the home setting.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! It's not the volume, it's the "snap, pop, impact", whatever you want to call it. I'm not saying I want concert level volume. I just want that feeling that live music gives or I should say, I want to get closer to that feeling. And I'm asking how I can get closer?

Yep. Dynamic transients. Not SPL per say.

I just went to a symphony concert Thurs. night--Ligeti's "Atmospheres," R. Strauss's "Also Spracht Zarathustra," and Host's "The Planets." Big, bombastic, large scale orchestral works. Generally speaking, it's a unique experience.

However, the rig in my experience that came closest to reproducing that sensation was a pair of Wilson Alexandria XLF's driven by a pair of D'Agostino monoblocks with Transparent Opus MM Reference cabling. This setup had the transparency, the speed, the holographic imaging, and that most elusive part--a sort of baseline energy in the room even during the silent passages.