Why I like my home system better than live music

Elizabeth you are so wrong about the crowds at rock/metal concerts. They are the most friendly easy going people I know. At jazz or classical concerts everyone is so uptight and full of themselves. At a rock concert you can have a friendly chat with almost anyone and share a beer.

I love going to concerts, especially rock or metal. The vibe and atmosphere is just great. If you go to a rock or metal concert just to hear music and see a band play you go for the wrong reasons. You go there to have a nice time. To have a beer talk and get drunk with friends and to see a band play. I want to be entertained when I go to see a band. That is why seated rock or metal shows are a failure and should be avoided; also seated rock/metal shows never happen in Europe thank God.

Some bands like SUN O))) can only be really enjoyed live.

Also live music classical or whatever is a totally different medium from recorded music. Two totally separate entities’. I don't want a PA sound at home neither do I want a hifi sound a concert. At the end of the month I’m going to graspop for the 10th time. It’s a 3 day metal festival with about 200 bands playing.

I could go on but I have to go for now.

First of all, whether or not speakers are the most important in the audio chain is a matter of opinion.

Second, I think you have it backwards. The objective is to reproduce the music. Real music is what we compare our system to, not the other way around.

There's another dimension, here, especially for pop music.

Some of it is essentially impossible to recreate outside of the studio. I recall reading somewhere that this was one of the (many) factors that dissuaded The Beatles from performing their later material live. There are many recordings that I love which need to be pretty thouroughly reinterpreted for live performance.

Nevertheless, there's nothing like live music in my book. Rock, jazz, folk, blues and - let's not forget - kid's concerts. (That multiple marimba band at McCabe's last year was great fun!)

Marty

"I recall reading somewhere that this was one of the (many) factors that dissuaded The Beatles from performing their later material live. There are many recordings that I love which need to be pretty thouroughly reinterpreted for live performance."

That was true at the time. With modern technology however, not so much the case.

I've heard various Beatles cover acts that are able to deliver performances of later Beatles works these days that are designed specifically to sound as much as possible like what is on the records. It is still of course not EXACTLY the same, but as close as you can in a live performance delivered in real time.

Classical symphonies can sound better live than all but the best home stereos, depending on the hall and where you sit. But often things which should be unamplified, like classical guitar, are run through a p.a., so you do not really hear the beautiful tonality of the instrument. Rock almost never sounds very good at a live event, except in a few smaller venues. Stadium rock always sounds terrible. Mordante is glossing over all the jerks at rock concerts,and standing up for hours at a time, surrounded by drunks (or worse) is no fun. For some reason, people at rock shows seem to think a quiet song is their big chance to talk loudly about trivia, spoiling the show for everyone interested in the music. At least classical fans have the decency to shut up while the music is playing. We go to shows for many reasons, but quality of sound is usually not high on the list.