No doubt you can only reproduce what’s in the recording most all of which are flawed in some way, even the good live recordings which are the only ones relevant for comparing a live event to what you hear off a recording.
I find once your system is performing well, the recording is essentially always the biggest bottleneck by far in regards to sound quality or "like live".
You can’t reproduce what’s not there to start with.
In a lab experiment like Atmasphere’s with ultimate care in recording and playback, only then is one in a position to be talking about anything approaching zero distortion or perfection.
With the best live recordings I know of like teh best from Mercury Living Presence, Dorian or Mapleshade most good systems should sound like being there. Even my somewhat modest rigs do. I’m sure if I was at teh live performance recorded, with same perspective as the mikes, which alone is not likely, I might notice some differences. But why should that matter? They are ALL recordings. Flawed and/or limited representations of real life. Some might be like a high res photo and some like abstract Picassos, some even just a total disaster like DT might say. What matters is the illusion of a live recording. That happens with most any decent recording in a good setup, even if produced in a studio.
