Sat front row at the symphony...

mahler123,

Good observations.  The short wavelengths of high freq (HF) mean that HF are more absorbed than lower freq (LF) at greater distance.  So the tonal balance at greater distance is skewed toward LF.  At close distances, the natural HF predominance of the violin lets it sail above the orchestra, but in the balcony HF are relatively subdued, so the violin doesn't sail above.  Recordings offer a close perspective with the close miking, and thus there is more detail than from the balcony.  Despite the live naturalness in the balcony, I dislike the greatly reduced detail there.  Move to the 5th row and you will be happy with everything--the naturalness, detail, visual line of sight, sound spatiality.  In the 1st row, I get even more detail and HF, but sacrifice the visuals and spatiality.  See for yourself.  

I used to hear the Juilliard orchestra Fri nights in Alice Tully Hall.  I haven't been in the renovated Alice Tully.  Excellent professional quality student orch for free.  You can try all locations.  Try the Wed at One free concerts at Alice Tully.  Paul Hall in the J School is great for chamber music--free concerts several times a week.  There's a small hall in the J School for more student recitals.  Check the J website.

Where do you live?

@viber6 Great post. It all rings true for this acoustic music junkie. No matter how much punishment my ears have taken through the decades.😁

 I live in Chicago and regularly attend concerts there, but we have family in Boston, New York and Detroit so we regularly attend concerts there as well.  Detroit Orchestra Hall is actually an acoustic gem and a beautiful hall, obviously not as well known as the other cities mentioned  but probably my favorite of the 4 mentioned here .  Next would be Boston, and then a bit of a drop to Chicago Symphony Center, and I would continue to rank New York last, but now much improved.  Internationally, my experience is confined to Barcelona, Vienna, the Rudolfinum in Prague, Amsterdam, and the Garbage Can—oops, the Barbican— in London.  I would love to attend concerts in Germany, and I had a trip that would have taken us to Leipzig, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin wiped out by the Pandemic

You have a wealth of concert hall experience.  I love the mono recordings on Mercury of Rafael Kubelik + Chicago SO in Orchestra Hall (I guess renamed Symphony Center).  Have you tried a few locations there to compare the recordings with what you hear live?  Boston Symphony Hall was great in the 4th row center when I was there 2016.  I heard the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orch conducted by Benjamin Zander.  Zander is a world class conductor, so the best deal is hearing an excellent student orch at their best with a great conductor.  White fluorescent lighting was used.  The tonality was clear, cool and neutral, unlike the warm, HF rolled off quality in Carnegie.  Sensory perception overlaps with sound and vision.  I wonder if Carnegie used cool white light, whether the tone would then be cooler and less warm than it is.

In the Concertgebouw, I sat in about the 10th row center.  Muddy, syrupy warm sound.  This correlates with what I hear on recordings from European halls--distant and muddy.

Prices are insane in major famous halls with famous orchestras and soloists.  People who are willing to pay $700 for the balcony in Chicago have no idea what details they are missing vs much closer to the stage.  My strategy is to get a modestly priced seat on the main floor as close as I can get.  5 min before the start, I survey empty seats, and then 1 min before the lights dim, I dash for the empty center seats much closer.  Acoustics don't matter much to me, since I want the maximum detail of the 1st row.

Mischa Mischakoff was the most esteemed concertmaster of the 20th century.  He was with the NBC Symphony under Toscanini, and I love his solos on those recordings.  When he retired, he was with the Detroit Symphony.  I visited him in Detroit in 1975.  He invited me to hear him at a small private quartet concert.  He preferred his Belgian violin to his Strad.  I declared him the greatest violinist I had heard.  But the socially minded dean of my medical school said, no, Heifetz was the greatest violinist of the 20th century.  Well, everyone sorta knows that, but to really appreciate the finer, subtle qualities of a great artist, you have to be a real connoisseur.  

The Musikverein in Vienna is considered to be the #1 hall, but kudos to you for discovering Detroit as #1.