How close to the real thing?


Recently a friend of mine heard a Chopin concert in a Baptist church. I had told him that I had gone out to RMAF this year and heard some of the latest gear. His comment was that he thinks the best audio systems are only about 5% close to the real thing, especially the sound of a piano, though he admitted he hasn't heard the best of the latest equipment.

That got me thinking as I have been going to the BSO a lot this fall and comparing the sound of my system to live orchestral music. It's hard to put a hard percentage on this kind of thing, but I think the best systems capture a lot more than just 5% of the sound of live music.

What do you think? Are we making progress and how close are we?
peterayer
it depends on music stye, few times I gett fooled myself and acept recorded voice to live(and I am not kidding) , but I have been in other room. it nevr hapened listening in stereo in listening room however.

somebody touched my favourite music(30-40% of my records are(mainly) wind band orchestras ) when we think about orchestra I have never heard small (smaller than 700lbs) speaker that convinse me more than 20%. its about "air breathe" and "dark silent" of real orchestra that is hard to convince(in some records I feel some intrument localisation better than in some orhestra auditions!). some 3 way floorstander can reproduce real 30hz(but with more than 60% discortion levels at natural listening loudness of orchestra-nobody measurs discortions on real life SPL lets say 20hz@115db/5.5m) . but thats not the same feeling. its just too small to reproduce frequency without discortions and convinsingly. what we want is lot of active cone area which designed specificaly( and which doesnt interupt or work in frequencies higher than 200hz). when I say I lot of I mean REALY lot. unfortunately nobody will produce(because qty which wll be sold will not cover even R&D)

i have gathered folowing formula in realistic low frequencies reproduction vs cost. if 100hz is referense line its nessesary to have emiting area of 4x 15 inch woofers per channel) then to achive 90hz required double manufacturing cost, 80hz double of double and so on, when we go to numbers like 50hz it starrts to be ridiculy and when reach 15hz its utopia of customers(because cost and listening area). I touched only first three octaves problems. there is alot more to properly reproduce higher range. here I believe we need invent diferent (preferably omnipolar) EAC( electrical to acoustic converter) than conventional current dynamic, e-static plasma and other converters types.

I believe we would already had this, but science work on other "problems" as we are too small group and the target(sound close to live music) is not considered as absolute nescesity of human being .
My reference is also the BSO and Symphony Hall. I have had seats 4th row center for several years, and prefer them to sitting further back. Comparing live to my Harbeths is a bit of an apples and oranges proposition, but I have some recordings that are clearly beyond 5% of live. It may sound like heresy, but sometimes recorded can be more enjoyable than live.
I have a neighbor who is a pianist and has a baby grand piano in his living room. I go over to his house from time to time to hear him play. I can tell you the sound from my audio system does not even come close to the incredible beauty of live piano sound, especialy when sitting up close. And get this, I have already spent close to $100K on my entire 2-channel/AV system, and the sound is not even close. I don't know whether the reason is due to the fact that no recording can ever capture closely the real sound, or that no audio hardware can ever reproduce the fullness and naturalness of real sound. I have an audiophile friend who is a bigger audio nut than I am. I estimate that his audio system must cost at least $500K (I'm not kidding), with 2 pairs of Wilson Audio Whamm speakers (one pair for front and one pair for surround), FM Acoustics, etc. Sad to say that I have heard his system, and again, not even close to the real thing. All in all, hard to put a percentage on it, but even the best sytem I have heard is really not even close to reproducing real live sound and the associated acoustics!
AVguy - Maybe its time to look at system synergy.

I have had professional piano players in my home when I was selling My magnepan MG3.6s and through my system with a telarc record they were able to tell the make of the piano and commented on the quality air, lifelike, definition and presentation of the music. (And I only have a measly 30k system)

My opnion on % effective = 20 to 85% depending on the source
Almost forgot; Let me continue -

I went to see Tchaikovsky on the Hudson at Avery fisher hall in NYC and when I came home and listened to my telark 1812 and closed my eyes. I was right in the concert hall. The only major difference was I herd and Felt the cannons in my home; where live it was just a 12 foot drumÂ…..

It all comes down to system synergy and your room.