How close to the real thing?

Michigan Technological University 300 person pep band conductor.Not Michigan State,but correct quote from the man.125db at over 100 foot away.Take it for what its worth.
Link.[http://www.maestronet.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=321036]

I cannot give a percent but Tidals come very very close when associated with good gear and good recordings in decent rooms.

Thanks for the links, he quoted even higher for the marching band, 125db @ 100 ft away. With a starting point of 100db per instrument, it would take 256 players to make 124db @ the instruments or 1024 players to make 130db... I don't have any idea of how spl falls off in an open outside area, Lets just say that they did it... That is much easier and its over. Now Peterayer, can your system reproduce the marching band with better than 5% accuracy?

Interesting, Timlub, the speakers that led me to believe I could come close to accurately reproducing piano were the original Legacy Focus (circa 1996). My previous A/D/S/ M15s could not. I also have to admit that the Legacy's proficiency on piano was a leap of faith for me, since the only way to buy Legacy speakers back then was factory direct. I actually talked with Dudleston at the time, asking him about piano reproduction, and after what I remember as a very long conversation he personally convinced me to place the order. I wasn't disappointed.

For you recording nerds, I used to use a Calrec Soundfield microphone (which I found used for $500 in a newspaper ad) and my absolutely mint Crown CX822 running Ampex 456 at 15ips. Modern digital recording sounds significantly better, but it's nowhere near as cool.