@wolf_garcia wrote:
I often wonder what the deal is with the live sound reference as the benchmark for high quality in audio. Do live things always sound right? If I play an acoustic guitar which clearly sounds different to the player than somebody sitting near the player (!), which is the reference? As a live sound tech I can take the blame (or more likely rabid or rampant praise) for some things, and do. Great recordings take into account that it’s not supposed to sound "live," it’s supposed to sound like somebody knows it’s being made for home audio. If you can sit in the sweet spot at acoustic concerts you still get room tainted sound, which is unnatural and a form of amplification. You have to be outside in an utterly dead quiet environment hovering above the musicians...which could mean you’ve recently died. There’s yer reference.
For one, it’s not nonsense to speak of a live feel of sound. In very broad terms some speakers manage to bring the performance into the listening room more effectively and uninhibited than others, and this way the listener can relate to the experience with a more live-like sensation. The OP stresses dynamics as a parameter here, and to that individual’s ears it’s a link to years of being exposed to small venue live bands. I’d certainly agree it’s at least one of the core parameters.
With regard to whether live things always "sound right" and the specifics of a given performance/venue, it doesn’t change that the experience and its general characteristics as such is in fact a live reference. The overall scale, tonality, fluidity, feel of the space and dynamic swings of a live symphony orchestra is apparent whether the acoustics of the place are compromised; indeed, these "compromises" are part of what distinguishes and solidifies a live qua live performance - I really wouldn’t be without them. I don’t operate with some platonic ideal of a "live" performance as "an utterly dead quiet environment hovering above the musicians," because it wouldn’t be a (a)live performance! A guess to each their own here..
Pragmatically I can say that to me it makes sense speaking of a live reference as something to aspire to, because while most every aspect of it is compromised to some degree from the recording to the speakers/acoustics, it can still bear the mark of a more close resemblance to a live performance compared to other approaches of setting up one’s stereo.