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

I read on this web site some members claim they go to the symphony orchestra and are "convinced" their system reproduces the experience. I agree with vocals, light percussion, acoustic music, light jazz, the best systems come very close. My experience comes from being a semi professional drummer for 40+ years. I currently have acoustic and electronic drums in my home. I play in a huge open space with 20 foot cathedral ceilings. I think I can state that I know what live drums sound like. Can even the six figure systems reproduce the attack and decay of a 20 inch crash cymbal? I say "maybe" in the future but not now! What makes me laugh is we audiophiles myself included will spend many, many thousands of dollars trying to reproduce the sound of a $20 triangle or a $15 woodblock or a $10 shaker. 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!! I don’t know if I can’t convince people that are not musicians. Not putting non-musicians down. Quoting my dad, "You don’t have to be a horse to be a horse doctor." Another quote by John Lennon. Someone asked him what he was listening to. He responded, "Dripping water."  It would be interesting to know how many of the greatest producers/engineers are or are not musicians or vocalists.
Some statistics: Soft drums 105dB, hard drums up to 130dB, kick drum/timpani 106-111dB, ride cymbal 101dB, toms 110dB, ride bell 115dB, crash 113dB, snare 120dB, rimshot 125dB. I have a system that could produce 125dB, would I -NO WAY I value my #1 instrument -my ears. So the drums are playing at 125dB peaks, now add in the other 80+ members of the symphony orchestra-how loud now? I ask again, can we at this time reproduce accurately the power of a symphony orchestra in the home? For many of us this is the Holy Grail of being an audiophile - Keep Searching!
wweiss
vinylzone
288 posts
 
The first question to ask is can the recording process accurately capture live music.

Maybe on very simple acoustic instruments, but otherwise, no.

Next is how much does the mastering process compress the "liveness" out.

I think the best we can hope for is reproducing what the recording/mastering process intends us to hear.
bpoletti
1,552 posts
 
No.  Too many flaws and shortcomings in the reproduction chain.  Too many flaws in room acoustics.
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,018 posts
 
No, and if someone says yes then they are just fooling themselves or drinking heavily. 
fiesta75
1,378 posts
 
Come on SOME of you. We all know accurate reproduction of a symphony orchestra at home is not possible. End of story.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
lonemountain
449 posts
 
JBL was always famous though the years as being very good at dynamic range.   From an English High Fidelity perspective, JBL was not as good at low distortion.  Many such as KEF attempted to get the distortion down first, work on dynamics later.  Many great British speakers of the 70s and 80s sound awesome-but don't play very loud.   I know directly from Billy Woodman [ATC] that his very specific goal was dynamics like the American speakers, distortion like the best British speakers.  It is difficult to maintain consistent sound quality [distortion] across the entire dynamic range. 

One way Billy tried to explain this to people trying to buy speakers is to state the dynamic range of the speaker though a max long term SPL level.    This is also important in pro (in studios) where the mix engineer works at low level (80s and 90s dB SPL) but the band wants to hear it loud when they walk into the control room and hear "what the engineer captured' (110dB+).   This is exactly why you see "big" monitors in wall at studios with horns but tiny little [mix speaker] things on the meter bridge.

The max SPL Billy's speakers can achieve in their largest speaker long term is about 118dB SPL 1Meter [SCM 300A].  Most of the speakers they produce for home can hit somewhere around 105dB SPL to 112dB SPL or so.  This is more than enough for a non amplified piano trio, or live orchestra, but not a rock band. 

Brad



        
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