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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
timlub
2,039 posts
 
Well Hifihvn, you just enlightened me, I didn't even consider the violin at the ear, nor am I experienced with any large scale concert type instruments.
and yes, we have headphones that allow some hearing. We do have a sound chamber that drummers can use(we tend to allow the drums on stage), it uses speakers as monitors and the drums are mic'd and sealed from the outside world, so the drums are completely by mix. Thanks for the info, i'll check it out. Tim
hifihvn
943 posts
 
Timlub,Only the one link shows 110 db for the violin.There's a lot for over 100 db.Maybe the players/owners of those pricey pieces don't want to be bothered with measuring it. Just playing them might be their priority.Still,over 100 db can be bad.I think it was a Michigan State band director that said they get over 120db at 100 foot during practice(I think).
I was Googling Musicians and hearing loss,plus decibels for instruments,when I ran across that one.
timlub
2,039 posts
 
Michigan State???? Thats a whole bunch of musicians playing as loud as they can, but 120db...@ 100 foot back??? 121db is our threshold of pain. 100 ft back?... it would have to be near 130db at the instruments.... I would have to question that one. In the past, I was a sanctioned IASCA judge(car stereo), I've owned my own store and have built several VERY loud systems, (160db) I remember being in a vehicle that hit 154. I wore ear plugs and sound deadening headphones over those. It moved so much air that it sucked the air out of your lungs. Ok another story. I just can't see non amplified instruments getting that loud in an open area. Never say never, I'm not questioning you, I'm sure that you read it, but I have to question the validity of the source. If you had 100 players of various instruments all playing @ 100 db, the total encompased sound pressure level would be 121db @ the instruments..... I have no idea of what that would be 100 feet away.
timlub
2,039 posts
 
Michigan State? Lets get the right mic's, get the perfect recording and play that one in your living room! Maybe I don't play at live levels.
hifihvn
943 posts
 
That was out of a talk forum like this one.Thats why I put the (?) there.[http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-476991.html]
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