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

Come on SOME of you. We all know accurate reproduction of a symphony orchestra at home is not possible. End of story.

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



        

@fiesta75 --

Come on SOME of you. We all know accurate reproduction of a symphony orchestra at home is not possible. End of story.

Indeed. Not being able to replicate the live event in a home setting though has been a leeway to an extend that throws off the need for physics with the get-between of convenience, spousal demands, living space restrictions, etc. - a formed product type narrative or paradigm even that has grown from these limitations. Not to mention the elusive "artistic expression" of a live event that is sought recuperated in a myriad of ways that’s really about subjectivity in searching for that lost DNA hidden within a particular recording/interpretation/set-up constellation, to please a given pair of ears and mind.

That doesn’t change the fact that trying to approximate a live event from the blunt (but necessary) perspective of physical demands on the part of the speakers in particular, is not in vain. A kind of "ersatz" of the live event claimed its equal or even superior by poster @mijostyn would seem a blasphemous notion, but this is coming from a more outright accommodation to physics and acoustics, and as such I find it an interesting handed-over experience that could instill such an impression. I would be careful though suggesting that others are in for the same realization given a set-up of equal prowess. To many the live acoustic event given its nature is a holiness even that’s simply unparalleled, because there IS NO replicating it elsewhere and through other means.

@lonemountain/Brad --

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.

The needed SPL capabilities of speakers is underestimated, certainly trying to achieve live acoustic, let alone electrically amplified sound levels and their dynamic range. Many balk at achieving live levels in the home with reference to potential hearing damage, but the vast dynamic swings of live music significantly lowers the average SPL - as one would experience at a live acoustic concert - not that daily exposition to this volume range is recommended.

The one factor to consider is that a given max SPL requirement must be reproduced comfortably by the speakers, and that’s not at the limit of their performance ceiling. So, if +105dB peaks are necessitated at the listening position at a given distance, the (typically low efficiency) speakers must have somewhat more to give for them to be effortless at these levels. Not being able to do so mayn’t have them sounding overly strained per se, not least if that’s what one is used to hearing, but once you hear speakers playing with absolute ease at these SPL’s it becomes apparent what effortlessness is about and how important it is. That’s why, as they say: headroom is your friend, and that becomes even more important in the lower frequencies where hearing acuity lessens.

Wow phusis, you can write!  Bravo!  My Mom was an English teacher, my daughter a screen writer and I still had to read your post twice. 
Brad 

It's not about replicating 'live music' - it's about getting as close as possible to what the producer and artist wanted the record to sound like; it's all about their subjectivity. "Live music" will sound 10 completely different ways from 10 different perspectives.