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LOUSY SOUND AT LIVE CONCERTS

I went to a concert at Bank America Pavillion in Boston last night. I saw Tedeschi and Trucks, and The Black Crows. A terrific concert; The Tedeschi and Trucks Band was especially terrific.

Unfortunately, these bands sound better in my living room than at this beautiful, outdoor venue.

Many venues have extremely poor acoustics and/or poor sound systems. The music is often terribly distorted, details and nuances of the instrumentals and voices are lost. The sound presents as a congealed distorted mess. The art of these incredibly talented musicians cannot be fully appreciated without clear sound. Listening to music in these crappy venues is like looking at masterpiece paintings in dimly lit museums with dirty glasses. The colors, details and brush strokes are indistinct. The artistic genius cannot be fully appreciated. The Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA., Fenway Park and The Boston Garden are just as bad as The Bank Of America Pavillion, if not worse.

I am frustrated with these venues that cannot provide great sound to accompany the great music. What is the sense of attending live concerts if the sound quality sucks. Does anyone else share my frustration?
matjet
jadem6's avatar
jadem6
1,074 posts
 
I saw Clapton/Winwood in an arena and discovered a source of distortion I was surprised by. I had a bottled water from the concession stand and was holding it in my hand. I heard this distortion that was fogging the sound and after a few minutes discovered that if I covered the bottle with my hand the distortion went away. take my hand away and it was back. I pointed to my wife and she heard it too.

Now imagine how many open bottles are in the arena and there is just one source of noise we don't have at home.

BTW, I'm jealous that you heard Tedeschi Trucks, trucks was actually the back up band to the Clapton/Winwood concert. He is amazing and Susan is even better. She is one of my favorites.
matjet OP
111 posts
 
Most people in the audience don't seem to mind that the music/sound is very distorted. I think most people are completely unaware of the poor acoustics. My son says, in jest, that I have ruined it for him. When he goes to concerts with friends and complains about the poor acoustics, they do not understand what he is talking about.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
This topic has been discussed previously. Many audiophiles believe Live music should sound like their stereo system. I believe this type of thinking is ludicrous and a good reason why one system can't do it all. We have all heard about "sins of omission" in equipment or a system, but many systems suffer from "sins of addition". The definition of high fidelity is "The reproduction of sound with little distortion, giving a result very similar to the original". You may prefer the sound of your system over live music, however, if your system is not faithfully reproducing the original it is not high fidelity.
rrog
1,958 posts
 

08-01-13: Matjet

"My son says, in jest, that I have ruined it for him."

You have also ruined it for yourself.

martykl
3,578 posts
 
The sound at large venues has always sucked. I stopped going to arena shows in the 90's for that reason. However,over the last few years I've decided to try a few for either my favorite bands or for group outings. I was really surprised at how the sound has improved since the bad old days. Fleetwood Mac, in particular, sounded great at Staples several years back and almost as good at the Hollywood Bowl a few months ago. Now, the bar was low, but I'm hearing improvement out there.
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