Sat front row at the symphony...

As a subscriber of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra I share your enthusiasm. Prefer 20th row center.  

mahler123,

The best listening position is the conductor's head on the podium.  He is closest to all the instruments and gets maximum detail.  He hears the best balance, so all the instruments are maximally revealed.  All instruments are more or less directional in their radiation patterns, and they are all facing him with nearly full toe-in.  (Incidentally, nearly all loudspeakers are directional, so to get the full frequency range, toe-in is desirable.  The only question is whether you beam the speakers to each ear, or the nose.) 

If the stage is high, like 4 feet in Carnegie Hall, then the first few rows will be below the axis of direct radiation from the instruments.  At about rows 7-10,  the radiation pattern will be more direct.  Unfortunately, at 40 feet distance, the 10th row will lose a lot of HF especially, compared to the 10 feet distance in the 1st row.  In my experience, the HF rolloff with the distant 10th row destroys the clarity and detail of HF overtones more than the benefit from the better projection.  In the front balcony about 100-150 feet away, there is SEVERE HF rolloff, much multipath acoustic smearing of the midrange.  The only benefit of front balcony seating is better visuals.  Although there is more spatiality in the balcony, the large distance turns the whole presentation into almost mono.  Ideal stereo separation might be the 10th row, but my paramount interest is to hear full freq harmonic detail.  Front row center is best for that, 

My most thrilling orchestral experiences have been when performing solo violin concertos standing on the front stage next to the conductor.  All the brass instruments blasted into my ears and body.  Subtle nuances from all instruments were unparalleled.  The front row in the hall was the next best thing.  Anything further back was boring DULLSVILLE by comparison.

juanmanuelfangioli,

One of my favorite recordings is Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, Dallas Symphony, conducted by Donald Johanos, 1967.  The companion recording of Copland works (Rodeo, Fanfare for the common man) shares the same recording technique.  They were done in the auditorium of Southern Methodist University.  These recordings were audiophile demo spectaculars in the mid 70's when I got started as an audiophile.  The recordings are close miked with minimal hall sound.  They sound like front row center.  Most other recordings of these pieces are distant with more ambience.  Musical clarity and detail are nearly completely lost in the soup of ambient smearing.  That's what you get with 20th row seating.  

@czarivey   Well, most concerts I've been to the lady violists wear long flowing dresses or skirts.  While they like to keep their bowing arm free to move and so often have tops cut to the shoulders.

@viber6 

I mean no disrespect to you as a musician, but in my experience musicians don’t always make the best audiophiles.  I have a friend who is very well known violist who is perfectly happy using an AM transistor radio circa 1960 as his only piece of audio.  He knows music so well that I think his mind fills in whats missing.  The perspective that you describe having the brass blow up your butt while you play must be thrilling, but again you know the music so well that you are entranced when you get to experience facets of it in a unique way.  Is that really the experience that you crave if you are going to sit and listen to a recording a few dozen times?  I think the uniqueness would wear off and become fatiguing.

  I have sat first row, dead center, in Boston and Chicago (where I live), so close to the conductor that I could hear the noise made when his perspiration hits the podium.  It is a thrilling perspective, but not an experience that I care to repeat often.

  I have sat in every part of Chicago’s Symphony Hall over the past few decades, jand without question first row balcony takes the cake.  They are also the most expensive seats, so most listeners must agree.  It isn’t because the seats are the most comfortable.