Sat front row at the symphony...

My 50 year career in music was pretty well divided into 25 years as a symphony musician and 25 years as a recording engineer.  The major orchestra I performed in played in some of the world's best concert halls.  Two of the best were the "Musikverein" in Vienna and Theatro Colon in Buenos Aries.  As an example of the use of sound reinforcement, Royal Festival Hall in London is outstanding. They quietly, over the period of more than a year, gradually introduced the system until critics praised the hall as becoming more and more refined, like the ageing process of a fine violin.  They were enraged to find that they were duped when the secret was revealed !  My first encounter with the hall left me with the impression that it was impossible to fill that huge hall with sound, but on another visit a dozen years later, when the system was activated, it was a very comfortable hall in which to play.

    Just as properly placed microphones that provide a sightline to all parts of an orchestra give an honest sonic description of the ensemble, so does listening from a vantage point in the hall from which all instrumentalists are visible.  Though there are a few exceptions, most venues place the orchestra above the level of the main floor's audience.   Listening from the front row of any hall requires the listener to accept that three-quarters of the orchestra is being "filtered" through the first few rows of instrumentalists.  Not an ideal listening situation although it might appeal to some.  

    A reasonably well known reviewer often was critical of the orchestra in which I performed.  It wasn't until an unusual circumstance forced him to sit in a different seat that he realized that his longtime seat was at a "null" point in the hall.  His criticisms were correct when made from HIS seat !

   This is a good place to quote Duke Ellington : "If it sounds good --- it IS good" ! There is a seat in every hall for every kind of listener and the quest to find it is worth the price of admission.   Keep buying those tickets !!

Every time I improve my tonearm I think that NOW the system sounds like live music.

Then I go upstairs to the grand piano ...

Front row may not be the “best” place to sit, but in some halls it is the most impressive place for unforgettable experiences. That applies to i.e. Philharmonie in Berlin. 

I had the opportunity to perform in the Berlin "Philharmonie" .   During rehearsals I was able to go out in the hall and listen to the orchestra.  When I returned, my colleagues asked what the hall sounded like.  I told them that I was amazed at how the Germans had re-invented monophonic sound.  It was like listening to an orchestra from one end of a long funnel !  There was absolutely zero of the effect that we audiophiles refer to as "imaging".  By design ?

mahler123,

You're right.  I have known a few professional musicians who aren't interested in an audiophile home system.  They get plenty of exposure to live natural sound in their work, so for recreation they are content with run of the mill sound.  I even met an elderly brass player who gave up playing his instrument soon after he retired.  He wanted to pursue other interests outside of music.  

But I have also known other pros who have good audio systems.  A pro violinist friend owned Maggie speakers with modest electronics and agreed with me about the uncolored tone of those speakers compared to dynamic speakers.  He cared about both live and audio system sound.  He played and owned an expensive Ruggieri 17th century violin, but didn't care to spend significant money on better audio electronics.  Later, he got a modern violin by a maker he met.  I played this modern violin, and it was quite good for its tone.  It would be valued today at $30-50K and offered more sonic pleasure than any uber expensive set of audio electronics.  As an excellent amateur violinist, I share the priorities of my pro violinist friend.

It seems that you have good ears for objectively describing sound, and know that close distances offer maximum detail.  I don't deliberately listen for extraneous nonmusical sounds that are only heard close up, but merely tune out the extraneous sounds because I am too busy enjoying the musical details.  It is still a fact of nature that mechanical sounds are part of any instrumental or vocal sound.  The first row (better yet, the stage) reveals everything, warts and all, but the balcony only a shadow remnant of the total tone.  The only thing the balcony offers is an interesting visualization of the instruments, which I admit is hidden from the 1st row.

As for fatigue, I listen at soft levels, so I have no fatigue.  Extraordinary clarity in my audio system enables me to be satisfied at soft levels, whereas people with less revealing dynamic speakers and euphonic electronics need much higher SPL's to get reasonable detail.  String quartets from the 1st row naturally are at 40-50 dB with peaks of maybe 75 dB.  A Mozart orchestra is about 60-70 dB mezzoforte.  Of course, Mahler can yield 100+ dB with all the brass blasting away.  But there are plenty of soft passages in Mahler.  The long opening of the 1st symphony is about 20-30 dB, before the buildup to the first cymbal crash.  In the balcony, the impact is considerably diluted and muddied.