Why I like my home system better than live music

I do not hear many live performances these days that I would prefer to listen to in terms of sound quality alone over what my gear is capable of these days.

A home system is still no substitute for the full sensual impact of a great live performance though.

Maybe well done large scale classical or similar types of live music in a larger quality venue perhaps.

I think my limits at home are mostly that of scale, where room size is the bottleneck, not quality these days. Not to say it is perfect but good enough to fit the bill very well most of the time.

A lot of the posts above definitely resonate (pun intended) with me. After re-reading this post before submission, I realize that I am being verbose and pedantic, but it's a slow, warm and humid Saturday afternoon, and I am in a mood to be verbose and pedantic. Apologies in advance!

I would add that subject to several exceptions and as a very general matter, I like the home venue best. As a threshold matter, I agree with the OP that many folks think that live music is the absolute reference. In fact, there is another OP running here on A'gon which is capturing comments about the importance -- or lack thereof -- of so called accuracy.

Frankly, I think the concept of sonic "gain on a wire" is nonsense. If the absolute standard is listening to an unamplified, un-modulated, un-engineered, un-dubbed/mixed and unadulterated performance, then I think most of us would be disappointed. Instead, IMHO, I think venue ambience, comfort, company and drink are non-sonic/muscial factors that contribute to the enjoyment of an overall live or home performance.

Now, in the case of classical music, as a Philadelphian, I am fortunate that the Philadelphia Orchestra is just downtown. Both the orchestra and the venue -- the brand new, high tech Kimmel Center -- are world class top of the line. Nothing is better than taking in a performance at the Kimmel, with the company of my lovely wife (who by the way irrationally deeply hates and resents my stereo rig), sitting in nice comfortable seats located in the center of the orchestra section, and having a glass of wine at intermission. All followed up, of course, with a late evening snack at "Upstair at Varelli's" down the block after the concert. A real treat and musical experience!

Also very enjoyable is taking in a live performance of a one or more musican/vocalists at a local watering hole, while having a drink or cup of coffee with my wife either before or after taking in a flick. Very nice indeed.

On the other hand, I agree 100% with Elizabeth that going to a huge rock concert where the SPL is in excess of 120db and my ear wax liquifies -- is definitely not fun. Many years back, my wife and I took in an Elton John/Billy Joel concert. I had to stuff paper into my ears because the high SPLs were otically painful. Not so much fun.

So, in between taking in live performances of the type and genre described above, I very much enjoy the engaging and musical experience that my home rig provides. However, I do not delude myself by thinking that I have assembled a rig that reproduces music with the accuracy of "gain on a wire." OTOH, that doesn't mean that my rig doesn't provide me with a ton of enjoyment -- because it does!!!

Cheers and have a great July 4th weekend!!

I know that this comment is slightly off topic but for what it's worth, I've stopped asking whether my rig captures the "Absolute Sound" of live, unamplified, acoustic instruments, and shifted instead to asking how well my rig reproduces what the recording engineer intended. Dark Side Of The Moon, for example, isn't about the Absolute Sound, but (in part) about whether all the phase manipulation stuff that Alan Parsons did in mixing down the album gives me the creeps in the way that he (presumably) intended it to do.

As for live music, I agree that the SPL's of pop concerts has killed a lot of the enjoyment for me.

I've been to two rock/pop concerts in the past 10 years. One was the Steely Dan "Two Against Nature" tour in Dallas. The experience of hearing Bodhisattva live, played at an insanely fast tempo, was ecstatic and I'm glad I was there. But waking up at 4 a.m. with my head buzzing, unable to hear anything else, increased my paranoia about middle-age hearing loss and made me resolve to bring ear plugs to my next amplified concert.

Then, a year or so ago, we heard James Taylor at Bass Concert Hall, very fine venue on the University Of Texas at Austin campus. The show was good, but again, pointlessly, abusively loud.

I'll close by just saying that to me, listening to music at home and in concert are two different kinds of experiences.

I think it helps to think of your home/room as your own personal venue and play to its strengths rather than fighting it's weaknesses.

All venues sound different. The same venue sounds different even depending on where you sit.

Thinking this way, my goal is to make my room/venue the best it can be regardless of the music playing.

I am somewhat uniquely fortunate perhaps in that I am able to run speakers in 6 different rooms off my gear so I have 6 different and distinct venues to mix things up with and chose from.