When did you ever hear a system sound so life-like

there are literally hundreds of thousands of great (and not so great recordings) that contain fantastic music. any one of them can bring any loudspeaker (at any price right back down to earth.

Dear Pedrillo: I think that what you ask can/could happen to many of us under some special circumstances and depending on our each one experience/knowledge with live/real music evnets.
Our mind could be foolished with audio performances when we heard it off-axis, with some kind of recordings and as I say: de`pending on our each one experience/know-how on live music and musical instruments.
I never had that kind of experience where I " suffer " that " confusion ".
IMHO if you are and have deep experience in live music it is impossible to " suffer " a mix-up/confusion on-axis an almost impossible off-axis.

The sound of a live instrument performance is unique and with no single factor that could make we be confused about.

There are many characteristics in the sound of live music but at least these ones IMHO are unique and till today impossible to achieve in a home audio system ( I heard more than 100 different systems ranging from 10K-15K to 500K. ): the attack and transients, dynamic, full music " presence " , non-distortions/colorations/noise: REALITY!

How can we be " foolish " with those specific live music characteristics?

Some one posted that a recording is " different " from a live performance: well it is not only way different but a live performance IMHO is way better.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

I've had the experience where I thought someone was at my house singing along with my stereo when I thought I was alone. It creeped me out at first until I realized what just happened.

Ok I believe those that claim it is impossible.
But wouldn't it be interesting to get a top notch system and have it set up on a stage next to live musicians and do an a/b test between live and recorded playback.
How many can claim they will definitely tell the difference, I would love to partake in that experiment.
Not writing this to pose a challenge but as a learning step.

Not life-like is the last refuge of the audiophile scoundrel. :-) By that I mean it gives us something to hide behind when our systems don't quite move us enough.

And yet, isn't it still the goal?