System that sounds so real it is easy to mistaken it is not live

Yes. Sounds like the players are live in my room every day with my current setup and not just with live recordings.

henry53, In a small club listening to a vocalist backed up by a small jazz group or to a small jazz group alone, you certainly can hear a degree of "realism" not easily replicated in the home.  In that sort of set-up, some of the instruments and a vocalist typically will be electronically amplified, but if you're sitting within about 20-25 feet of the performers, the PA system typically does not really pollute what you hear to a great degree. To demonstrate the difference between that sort of live listening and your home system, ask a professional musician to come by your house and play a few tunes in your listening room, preferably standing between your two speakers.  Concerts in large halls are a whole different ball of wax, up or down.

A little nostalgia.  This was our room at 1996 Waldorf Stereophile Show. Timbre Technology TT-1 DAC, ESP Speakers, Synergistic Research cabling, Nagra  tape deck, CJ amps, ASC Tube Traps....

"....At Stereophile's 1996 High-End Hi-Fi Show, at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City, in order to promote new releases on my label John Marks Records, I arranged with ESP to hold a demonstration and press reception in their exhibit room on the show's Press Day. Arturo Delmoni was to play, live, one solo part of J.S. Bach's Concerto for Two Violins. The other solo part (Arturo again) and the continuo reduction, having previously been recorded by Jerry Bruck, were to be played back via Nagra and Conrad-Johnson electronics, the ESP Concert Grands, etc. The plan was to present a "Music Minus One" live demonstration for invited members of the press, then pour some champagne and socialize.

Earlier in the day, Stereophile writer Lonnie Brownell had asked me whether he could bring to the event a couple of nonjournalist friends he was showing around the Show. I imagine my eyes grew quite a bit larger when Lonnie's friends turned out to be drummer Max Roach and pianist Tommy Flanagan.

Trumpeter Clifford Brown has always been a near-mythic figure for me. (I wanted to name our son Clifford, but that was vetoed.) To shake hands with someone who, apart from his own achievements, had worked with Brown, was a very special moment. Since that time, I have learned that Roach's impulsive gesture of stuffing a couple of hundred-dollar bills into the pocket of a strung-out Miles Davis was the spur that shamed Davis into getting clean, with all the resultant music we have to be grateful for.

Roach and Flanagan were on time, which for this kind of thing means early, so I sat them in the front row, then felt like a totally inadequate idiot as I tried to make small talk. The room eventually filled and the demo began. Arturo worked his customary magic, and time stood still.

All too soon, the music was over. We poured champagne, and it was my pleasure to bring glasses to Roach and Flanagan, who looked quite pleased with the proceedings. They then wandered into another room in the suite, as did most people.

Jerry Bruck and I also had with us a master-tape clone of cellist Nathaniel Rosen's not-yet-released CD Reverie. We put that on the Nagra and began playing Richard Strauss's "Morgen," sung by soprano Kaaren Erickson. Moments later, Max Roach walked back into the demo room, looked around in surprise, chuckled, and said a bit sheepishly that he had come back in "to hear the young lady sing." He thought a live soprano was next on the program. A priceless memory.

So, music lovers, there you have it. The previous version of ESP's Concert Grand fooled Max Roach into thinking a live soprano was in the next room. The new speaker is, according to its designer, better in nearly every way. How much more can I say?"

 No need to say more. I’m sorry I opened up yet another can of audiophile worms.

@lewm It takes a whole lot bigger can to get them all back inside!