At This Time Can We Recreate Full Range Live Music In The Home?

Dear @wweiss : "" can we at this time reproduce accurately the power of a symphony orchestra in the home? ""

NO, that’s impossible today and in the near future and the reasons are not because the live SPLs that we can get in audio systems.

In a live concert/event if we are seated at near field and not seated 40m. from the source normally what is between the source of MUSIC is only the air.

The power of live MUSIC comes from those instruments transients and its very fast developed harmonics that arrives to our ears/body through the air and nothing else in between. The power comes from there and we not only can listen it but can feel it all over our body.

That is what impedes ( no matters what. ) that we can’t mimic a live event even that the recording microphones are way better ( capture a wider range frequency with a dynamic range to wider too. ) that each one of us ears because that MUSIC when arrives to our ears from the speakers already gone and pass for " thousands " of " veils " through the long and tortuose recording and playback process.

All those " veils " are and makes a terrible sound degradation. Here in México city there are a lot of people playing MUSIC to take some money and they do sometimes fixed in a street corner and other times just walking along the streets and do it with acoustic instruments and when we listen say one of those gentlemans playing a trumpet and we are at 60m.-80m. from the source we can with any single doubt and we know that that sound does not comes from an audio system. Tha’s the power of live MUSIC .

We can name any room/system and no single of them can do that at any price in any " scenario ", it’s only a caricature of the real thing.

I'm totally sure that MUSIC coming not from a recording but live any one of us can immediatly identify if the sounds is amplified or acoustic.

We all reproduce MUSIC at home because we are MUSIC lovers and this is all about.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

I have been playing "guitar hero" for over 40 years, a few decades before that ridiculous video toy was conceived, difference being you're at least aping being a real musician!

I'm sure other players have as well. Plugging in a cheap guitar to play along to my favorite Zeppelin Songs along with the always cool solos of Steely Dan(Jeff Baxter/Denny Dias)

"Play the song Aja by Steely Dan. I can play on my system the drum solo by the great Steve Gadd at realistic volume levels-if you dare -but it is not the same as real drums!! "

Steve Gadd is a killer drummer. Nice outro on Aja. I also like Jeff Porcaro's work on the SD albums. 

I would imagine just like drums, you're just not gonna get the EXACT tone since there as many variables. You can get close, especially an acoustic guitar. STILL, even the BEST setups leave something to be desired.

Even hearing the uber systems- ILLUSION.  Spend a ton of dough, follow some audiophool messiah with tweaks and rituals....you still get FAKE, but it may sound good enough to forget that  it's  just a few fancy boxes and wire.

Small jazz ensemble, sure.  
Baroque string group, easy.

Full symphony orchestra - no. The reason being what was already mentioned - you would have to synthesize the huge room acoustic to reproduce it correctly.  Don't know about you guys, but my room volume is around 4200 cubic feet while a concert hall is c.30,000 cu ft.. 

 The guy who designed my speakers says he voices them to sound like the sweet spot seats in Carnegie Hall.

Having been there I’d say he did a very good job. 

Raul, I politely disagree. There are countless instances where the sonic experience is better with a top notch system than at a live concert. The reverse is also true. It is easy to make a system project the acoustic energy of a real concert. Making it sound "real" is a much more difficult problem. Very few systems manage to do this. Many come close, many more are far away. But, this is not everyone's goal and all these systems present their owners with an enjoyable experience. Only nitwits like me drive ourselves crazy trying to make the ultimate subwoofer. Beats watching the news.
I have been chasing the "live" experience ever since That Allman Brothers Concert in 1970. I got my first pair of subwoofers in 1978, RH Labs, a big leap forward but, the crossovers were not so hot back then. Sometime I would inadvertently take a step backwards, crap! I guess that didn't work. Save up some more money. Maybe a little luck. Plucked a pair of JC 1's off display. Learn how to juggle signal processing. Make a few mistakes. Almost burned up a new loudspeaker.
Quite a trip. Everyone here has their own trip. As for a system that can present music like a live situation? You bet it can be done. There are no short cuts, no compromises, no WAF. You have to be ready to build a house and design a room specifically for music reproduction including using construction adhesive to glue all the blue board and subfloor down. You have to buy equipment capable of projecting the power of a live concert. If you are a Nine Inch Nails Buff it is going to be a ton of power.
You are not going to do it with LS3 5A's and an integrated amp. Not that these can't sound very nice, they do. But, they are not powerful enough to bring an orchestra into your room. Again, most sane people just want to listen to nice clean music. They do not have illusions of grandeur and they have better things to spend their money on. (a 911 and an Italian bicycle)