What is a high end stereo SUPPOSED to sound like?

'LIVE' has nothing to do with how good something sounds or all the other adjectives used here to describe stereo systems. LIVE is your local band at the friday night football game or Your kids trying to learn piano or clarinet.

Can a system sound LIVE. Yes. But your brain has to be tricked into thinmking it's live music. You can't think it's live if you are sitiing in a room right in front of the system. Your eyes will override your ears, and the brain will always side with the eyes.

Several years ago in Germany, me and a friend were walking thru the parking lot to the PX in Nurnberg. We heard this band, and saw a crowd down at the other end of the parking lot. They sounded great. We went to see and listen and discovered that it was not a band at all, but the SONY Representative demostrating his speakers. The kind with square or rectangular flat drivers. I think the power amp was phase linear. Out in the open, no room or walls. I thought it was live right up until I could see. Then my eyes/brain restored reality. Still sounded good, just not live. But I was so impressed (former trumpet player), I went right into the PX and bought the LP! Maynard Ferguson's 'Conquistador"
btw, the reason he was outside was that, no way the store would allow that volume level inside.
I have never thought my system sounded live, but I have a few times thought that someone just listening from outside might think it was live.
Cheers.

Stereo replay never actually reproduces a musical event.
The only thing you can hope for is a credible illusion.
But it can be a very nice illusion.

----Bruno Putzeys

Rok2id,

I've also had the pleasure of someone thinking there was a live event at my place with the window open or the door ajar. Not all the time, usually a solo instrument (guitar, piano) and the grin on my face was priceless.

All the best,
Nonoise

Grainless, Shameless and Painless!!!

Rok2id touches on something i experienced recently and commented about on another forum. At a Shakespeare Festival here in the Hudson Valley- held in large tent open to the river on one end, pre-recorded tracks of simple music- small string section, or small choral group- sounded absolutely alive, no funny bass abnormalities, no shouty glare ala the typical PA system, although what was being used was fairly modest pro sound support: alot of small self-powered monitors, mounted high in the scaffolding, pointing in various directions, almost in an arc. Point was/is, that to me, it wasn't the 'highest end' equipment and it made me wonder about the effects of the room.
I've been using horns for the past 6 or so years, to get that sort of 'aliveness' and I agree, it is at best an illusion that sometimes works. When it does, that's what it's all about!

Audiophiles love to battle their rooms to improve room acoustics. Sometimes, certain battles can be won but in the end the room is what it is unless of course you totally change it into something else. That's true of live venues and studios during production and our rooms at home during playback.

Room acoustics can and generally are conquered to the extent needed to SIMULATE a live sound in your room, but what you get is more off an abstract Monet determined largely by room acoustics than an accurate reproduction of what things sounded like originally.