"They are here" vs. "You are there"

I prefer you are there.

Recording has a huge affect on this, as do room acoustics.

Of course it takes a certain level of quality in speaker and associated equipment to get this, but if it isn't on the cd/record/etc, it is not going to come out of your speakers.

I prefer "they are here". Since I have never been to most concert halls, recording studios, etc. I don't know how they are supposed to sound. I do know my own sound room and acoustic space and how it performs.

Just my opinion...

I think this has more to do with the recording methods and process, and because of that, I prefer to allow the artist and engineer to make that decision. I have a hard enough time trying to decide between cake or brownies for desert. :)

Bryoncunningham,

You make a very interesting distinction.

I would think the correct answer is clearly "you are there" at least for live or minimally processed, high quality recordings, where we start with the idea that the goal is recreating the illusion of the original event, in the same space in which it was recorded.

Therefore, a listening room which is fairly neutral, and a system's ability to image would be the key technical considerations.

Any system able to do this should not have any problems playing multitrack studio recordings either.