It depends how much money you can spend. But money does not garantee you a good live sound. In almost 16 years of time I also encouterd many highend sets with a poor endresult.
The combination of the right tools togheter ( sources, speakers, amp, pre amp, cables, conditioner etc) can create a live and realistic sound.
Acoustics of a room are the biggest enemy of a set.
When you have a system with a bigger freq. response, you can create a more live like sound. It is all about making the perfect combination of tools. I call it the art of sound.
I wrote a personal view in how I see a blueprint of the absolute sound. I call it Total sound.
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rcabl&1393266431
In my personal opinion Pass Labs also make the most complete sounding poweramps.