Do we really know what "Live" music sounds like?

About twenty years ago I started seeking real unamplified instruments in an effort to know what the real thing sounded like. I found an isolated piano here and there… occasionally a little jazz trio. It helped a little. Particularly the piano and drum kit.

Then about ten years ago, I got season tickets to the symphony, 7th row center… where all sounds are unamplified and solo performers were close enough: the sound hole of the violinist or sound board of the piano was pointed directly at my seat. This had a profound effect on the objectives of my system and my upgrades took a big change in direction… for the better. I realized I had a characterization of what music should sound like that was a conflation of memories of rock concerts, systems I had heard when young, and some smaller concerts.

I turned from planar speakers and massive amplifiers to tube electronics and Sonus Faber speakers. All music types sound better with my improving system… while in the past one type might sound better with an upgrade and the rest worse. My system is an order of magnitude more musical and satisfying to listen to. Cymbals sound like brass, and trombones and trumpets have that complex microdetail that makes them so amazing when live. My system still has all the detail it used to, only the detail is not in your face detracting from the full bloom of the mid-range voices and instrument.

Yes, exposure to live un-amplified music is the key to understanding sound and creating an empirical ruler.

One of my favorite concerts was when one of Martin Sexton's two mics wasn't functioning at the start. The room for ~200 folks was very much like a smallish church. He lowered the other mic to the opening of his acoustic guitar and he sang unamplified. It was heavenly(pun!). Cheers,

Spencer

Let talk the live music.

live music is based on music instruments. Not one ,but many kinds of. Different instrument make out different sounds, Piano,drum, violin  are very popular but they are very different. You can never ask the piano get the sound like the sound from drum,right? so It is the group of instruments to make out the sound.

But for the amplifiers,it is just one or two(Pre+power),they take all the jobs, they re-produce all the sound from all the instruments. 

so it is unfair to ask the amplifier to make the same or almost same soundstage.

This is the point we understand the amplifier and we can never ever expect the  real live music coming from that equipments..

In our grade school they had a Seattle Symphony Orchestra violinist come and play in our classroom. He demonstrated the range of the instrument with about half an hour of music, and explaining classical music, what it is like to attend a concert. This was so we would keep quiet and know when to applaud on our field trip to Seattle the next day.

The next year I played piano, then took accordion lessons, then for 6 years jr high to high school played French horn in band. In band I learned to play trumpet, and a little sax. After that I took up harmonica for a while.

Altogether that's about a decade hearing live unamplified acoustical instruments on a regular basis. Not just hearing either, but listening critically, because to play we must be in tune. Also there is a huge amount of technique involved, all of which you have to learn to hear and evaluate in both yourself and the other players.

In Jr High and High School I also attended a slew of concerts- band, orchestra, choir. All of it live and unamplified. 

So yeah I guess you could say I know what live music sounds like.

Having said that I think the whole "do you know' thing is overrated. The question is not do you know what live music sounds like. The real question is do you know what anything sounds like? The real question is, Are you a listener? Or do you merely hear?

Because in band, we had to be taught to listen, including what to listen for. Once you learn that, turns out it works for everything.