How close to the real thing?

Have you ever been walking down a residential street on a summer day and heard a musician practicing his guitar, horn, drum set or whatever in his apartment? You know immediately, don't you?

VMPS has done a live vs VMPS for the last 2 years at CES.
By all accounts these live vs recorded demonstrations have been very impressive.

"Have you ever been walking down a residential street on a summer day and heard a musician practicing his guitar, horn, drum set or whatever in his apartment? You know immediately, don't you?"

Yes, but it's not exclusive. I frequently play solo piano CDs, and several times people have come to the door and thought it was a real piano playing. Guys are usually fascinated. Women usually want to know if the speakers could be moved closer to the wall, and if the cables could be hidden. Sorry, Elizabeth. You and my wife are rare birds, apparently.

"Yes, but it's not exclusive. I frequently play solo piano CDs, and several times people have come to the door and thought it was a real piano playing."

I'm not obtuse, I hear what you guys are saying, and I can only conclude that I need to get out more. Neither my system nor any system that I've ever heard has been that convincing to me. I've gotten emotional, achieved satisfactory suspension of disbelief, and been in awe of the technology that made it possible. But I've never heard a system that I found indistinguishable from the truth. Those of you who have are my heroes.

Well, Phaelon, sounding "real" does happen for me, but not all that often, and, at least for me, only on solo recordings, and it takes just the right recording.

BTW, IMO people that buy audio equipment aren't heroes, people that engineer them are.

I think polar frequency response may have something to do with sounding "live". I've heard the Soundlab A1 sound live on a violin, the Soundlabs are of course dipoles, and occasionally my Revel Salon 2 sounds live (though not on violin, so far). The odd thing I've noticed, accidentally, about the Salon 2, is that even when you're sitting near one speaker you still perceive the stereo image *between the speakers*. This means that the Revel has some very interesting polar response characteristics, which might explain why they occasionally sound live, and my old Legacy Focus never sounded live to me. The Legacys had one of the most discernible "sweet spots" I've ever experienced. Great polar response might also explain why cymbals sound so realistic with the Revels, while their frequency response is certainly no better than other speakers I've heard.

The Legacys could fool some people on piano recordings though. Not me, but over the 13 years I owned them several people thought solo piano sounded live from another room.

It just seems more than a coincidence that the speakers I've heard "OMG live" sound from (Soundlab, Martin Logan Monolith, Linkwitz Orion, Revel Salon 2) all have different polar response characteristics than typical audiophile speakers.