How close to the real thing?

Vernneal, consider that at a concert imaging in the PA is not important. You may well be listening to mono.

Horns have no trouble doing imaging, that's for sure. There are other threads that have covered this subject.

Fas42, I agree completely about the power supplies. In fact I run a separate power supply with its own power transformer for the driver section of our amplifiers. The idea is to prevent any sort of noise that might occur in the output section from having any influence on the driver. This is one of the ways to really reduce IM distortion, as the power supply noise issues are usually modulation issues, but the effect is less pronounced for THD.

And I also agree that the engineering has to be right- you are absolutely correct that there are a ton of variables that affect any design and its easy for a problem in just one of those variables to completely overshadow other design parameters. IMO right here is where you encounter the human element in design.

Y'all have a nice holiday!!

Well, if you play a musical instrument vs. listen to sound, they are obviously very different things!
IMO nothing can aproach the connection you get to the music with playing - even listening in a concert hall. Any electronic copy and reproduction will always fall short.

Mikewerner, while I agree, this doesn't mean that one cannot get closer. I have heard speakers that are very easy to listen to but which are not at all realistic sounding.

I know how a lot of you all feel about BOSE on this forum BUT I think the new and improved BOSE 901 series 6 mk2's gets you really close to the "real thing"...LIVE MUSIC!.

That's a thoughtful reply.
Does the real thing have to be real?
What are the goals?
I think feeling the presence of live music is different, and being within it is even more so.
Do you ever sing in church? How does that feel? Is it live?
To me there is no percentage comparison. They are different things. Maybe that is what such a low 5% ranking is about from "The Violist."