Some close-miked recordings can fool you into thinking there are musicians in the room. Think Nils Lofgren's Acoustic Live. Or others like that.
System that sounds so real it is easy to mistaken it is not live
My current stereo system consists of Oracle turntable with SME IV tonearm, Dynavector XV cartridge feeding Manley Steelhead and two Snappers monoblocks running 15" Tannoy Super Gold Monitors. Half of vinyl records are 45 RMP and were purchased new from Blue Note, AP, MoFI, IMPEX and some others. While some records play better than others none of them make my system sound as good as a live band I happened to see yesterday right on a street. The musicians played at the front of outdoor restaurant. There was a bass guitar, a drummer, a keyboard and a singer. The electric bass guitar was connected to some portable floor speaker and drums were not amplified. The sound of this live music, the sharpness and punch of it, the sound of real drums, the cymbals, the deepness, thunder-like sound of bass guitar coming from probably $500 dollars speaker was simply mind blowing. There is a lot of audiophile gear out there. Some sound better than others. Have you ever listened to a stereo system that produced a sound that would make you believe it was a real live music or live band performance at front of you?
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@fuzztone |
Recorded music is "processed" by the engineer and a BUNCH of equipment. In the old days, it was mostly tube gear. If you are unfamiliar with that, visit an "old time" recording studio. Digital music uses "chips" that process "bits" and drop many of them that it considers "extraneous" to the final product. As for "realistic" reproduction, I have yet to hear anything better than the ARC/Magnepan combo set up correctly playing either master tapes or direct-to-disc recordings, both of which are "processed" as well. As for our friend with the guitar and amps, standing on the side of the stage in 1972 and listening to Duane Allman and Dickey Betts play live is about as close to "real" as I have ever heard. Cheers! |
I know this is an esoteric group but my introduction to " not live but close enough" was walking up the hill to the officer's club on Phan Rang AFB in '70 or '71 and from a hundred or so feet away wondering how they got a rock & roll band in Vietnam. Once inside, I discovered the magic of AR speakers with a large Macintosh amp cranked up to 11. Life hasn't been the same since. |
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