Optimum seats for a concert?

As a general rule of thumb, I've found that the highest seats available, and as close to center as possible, provide me with the best results.

I don't know much about acoustics, but my reasoning is simple:

Most audiences at symphony performances don't know how to sit still and keep quiet through even one movement, let alone an entire piece. When I sit up in the "cheap seats", there usually aren't many people up there, and I am therefore somewhat isolated from crowd noise.

As another rule of thumb, if the hall was built for a symphony orchestra it will have decent sound almost anywhere. Some multi-purpose halls have problems. George Mason University has a visually stunning arts center and an excellent schedule of events, but if you sit in the back-half of the hall forget it. The cheap seats in the back sound like you are in another room from the orchestra.

Then there are amazing places like the historic Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. This was a union hall built in 1857 and is used now as a concert hall among other things. It is one of the best concert halls in the world accoustically. It is one of Yo Yo Ma's favorite places to play recitals. The Boston Baroque's B-Minor Mass (Bach) recording on Telarc was recorded there. They attract major orchestras and groups from all over the world.

Mechanics Hall is just a large room, not a theater. The classical schedule (there are others) is at http://www.musicworcester.org/calendar.html

See the attached link of a list of 76 great concert halls from around the world. (Mechanics Hall is on the list.)

http://www.fact.usu.edu/ece3260/Module6/WebAct/WebAct6.html

It is quite difficult to determine which seats are the best if you don't know the concert hall. In my case I know a several theatres with excellent acoustics and it's not even necessary to be in the middle. My personal like is when I can see the fingers of musicians since I do worship them.
I always watch after the soloist fingers and his/her artistic feelings during the performance which gives me an idea how one's understands/feels the music. So I prefer to sit not too far away from the orchestra.

The very main thing for audiofiles is not to take in mind that there are pair of speakers standing in the performance hall he..he..:)