does a stereo system sound like live music ?

Hmm, looks like to me our Dr. Pingpong is actually the one who is enjoying the show of the little golden carps in the pond swimming frantically after the mechanical froggie! 'member guys and gals. . . keep smilin' or the old ticker may start a'rattlin'!

if my rig sounded like live music i'd throw it all in the trash & start over,really i would.

no low end bass,bloated mid bass & harsh highs,not the sound for me jack,to me live music is more about enjoying the (event) than it is about critical listening.

next thing your gonna tell us is all amps sound the same as long as thier not clipping.

I agree with Bigjoe, live events are to be enjoyed & have little to do with critical listening unless you have been an active Audiogon member for many years & you find yourself evaluating every source of music. I caught myself one time evaluating my car stereo, thinking it sounded pretty darn good but lacked in transparency however I quickly reminded how ridiculous this is.

Years ago was a simpler time for myself when ignorance was bliss. I wasn't concerned with audiophile terms like soundstaging, imaging, transparency, etc. It was the music & only the music. Now with more experience, the genie is out of the bottle, there is no going back, but once again I want to be more focused on the music & less focused on critical listening if thats possible.

Anyway a stereo system will never sound like live music and as Bigjoe mentioned some people wouldn't have it any other way.

the purpose of this thread and others is to stimulate thinking about long held beliefs about a lot of subjects.

the idea of comparing good vs bad confronts beliefs held about a subject.

what is meaningless or irrelevant to one person may be relevant to another. as to moderating and winning debates,
with the idea of winning them, this is your interpretation. in a philosophical discussion, there are no winners or losers.

as to this subject.

i consider the experience of listening to recorded music in the home as comprising two phenomena--that of sound and music.

i believe that a cheap stereo can rival an expensive stereo as a medium of enjoying and relating to the musical content, while, presumably, an expensive stero can sound better than a cheap stereo.

so, it depends upon your priorities.

a bad sounding concert of un amplified instruments sounds better than any reproduction in the home.

Guidocorona sez the proposition,

"How many anally retentive audiophiles can dance on the outer edges of my soundstage?"

is undecidable. Actually, I think that's quantifiable IF we all agree on the definition of anal- retentive. Then it would just be a matter of solving a space-time equation...:)
Mr Tennis sez

i believe that a cheap stereo can rival an expensive stereo as a medium of enjoying and relating to the musical content, while, presumably, an expensive stero can sound better than a cheap stereo

Quite so. Presumably, better sound can enhance the musical enjoyment and also open a wider window into the actual musicians' performance -- avoiding, that is, those rare occasions when the reporduction of Berlioz by Beecham sounds like Baroque by Leonhardt...
Methinks you've provided an adequate answer to your question.
Cheers