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

Your not hearing unamplified music at a rock concert. The only music to hear unamplified is classical or jazz. Period. I’ve been to enough jazz scenes in very small clubs to know what live music sounds like. Real tenors, horns, pianos, etc. And it was quality music with a legacy going back to the 20’s, not some loud noise not qualified to be called music. Jazz has never been music for the masses. If you don’t dig it, fine, the music doesn’t need you. 

@coltrane1 

You are correct. You are never going to hear an unamplified rock concert.

‘’Although I listen to all kinds of music, I found it was classical concerts and acoustic jazz was what you needed to listen to to in order to zero in your audio system. It would make other kinds of music sound better as well. This helped me develop an empirical ruler, hence helping all music.

Alternatively if you only liked rock… you could get JBL and try to get yourself into a recording studio to understand how it was mixed.

@jim5559 

Some of the concerts I have been to in the past few years are Bryn Terfel, Simrit Kaur, Tool, Joe Bonamassa and Richard Thompson.

Does the fact that I listen to a wide variety of music, including rock, make me clueless or not?

@jssmith 

"Unamplified live music is affected by the room. This has just as much or more bearing on the sound then an "amplifier."

1. Typically, unamplified music is not performed in a "room". It is performed in a music venue acoustically tuned for live music and voice.
2. If the music in that venue is fed through an amplifier, it is most certainly degraded when compared to the unamplified version.
3. Music + room will always be superior to music+ amplifier + room.

Going to electrified concerts, like rock concerts, makes you better able to make judgements on equipment when playing recordings of live concerts, but not studio albums.