How close to the real thing?

That was 2005 CES.

It was the 2004 THE Show at the St. Tropez.

I remember reading articles about this before.It may have been done more in Europe,or some other country overseas. But,from what I remember,some speaker companies put on a demonstration in large auditoriums with great results. Reviewers from magazines may be where I read about it.I get more enjoyment at home myself.When I've gone to listen to a live orchestra,I always seem to get the seats where all the ladies with the fur sit around me.This fur adsorbs all the highs.It makes those live concerts sound lifeless at times.I even tried clothes that have less absorption characteristics,but we can't be seated alone. When they do a good job of recording,their mikes capture a lot of what we miss out on.If we could hear them in an empty auditorium,the outcome would be better for a live performance,at least in my experience.They do sound fantastic when they're getting ready,before the auditorium fills up,but then there is a lot of reflections.There are places with small jazz groups that don't have this problem with the large close crowd,and I can say my system at home gives a fantastic illusion of,you are there. I have no idea on what kind of percentage to put on recorded music, but when they do it right,I would have to say that its fairly high.

Essential,
Don't argue with me, I put the consortium together for Von Schweikert--Oracle, PS Audio, Rives Audio, Acoustic Zen, VAC...altzheimers, a wonderful thing, helps me meet new people every day. It WAS probably 2004--somehow, since that was the year of my divorce, I was probably numb most of the time--anesthetized...
We did The Show, as it was, though slightly less traveled, a good place to be.
The girls were as sweet and beautiful as they were talented. Great time that year.

Thanks for reminding me of how 'out of touch' my memory has...what were we talking about??
Larry

Respectfully, I'm thinking that what you're hearing, Hifitime, is the lack of a tweeter blaring at you...with this obnoxious HF hash.
My favorite saying is, 'The best tweeter I ever heard, I didn't.'
It's true, very few loudspeakers capture the true harmonic structure of a violin without 'hyping' the HF energy...Sad, but true.
I know that, if I go for a few months without 'live violins' and then hear one, I usually blink a bit at first until my brain recalibrates the info. So I know what you're saying, completely.

Larry

An interesting range of responses.

Let's review (EOD (equal opportunity disparagement) --Trust, and wait until the end):

Elizabeth and Fin1bxn in the very high percentage camp, IrvRobinson who thinks "reproducing piano is almost too easy", the down-to-physics pragmatic science perspective of Br3098, Depotec who, while recording, compared one ear in headphones to one ear listening live (finding they were "VERY close") [which, the ears?], Elviukai who has calculated the cost of authentic sounding transducers to exceed NASA's budget in the 1960s, an invocation of a long-dead audio design star's opinion, Fin1bxn,a proponent of (relatively) modest priced electrostatics that feel like live music, and someone whose stratospheric spending, nor his friends' drastically irrational outlay get "sad to say [do you suppose so?] not even close to the real thing."

They --we-- all have differing perspectives on this question.

Does this cast a few things in high relief for you, as it does for me?

With 'authenticity of reproduction to live music' scores running the gamut from very low single digits to over 100 per cent ("sometimes ..recorded music can be more enjoyable than live"),

*Is it conceivable that people experience live music differently from one another?*

If you don't agree with that, at least I can better understand, now, why the audio-purchasing public supports so many products, particularly at the high end. (and why Audiogon does a booming business)

This thread --thank you, Peter Provocateur-- points up another thing: we expend a lot of energy talking, writing and socializing about music: all Thought Process, conducted between the ears. Coincidentally, that is where we hear every single nuance of live music, if or when we listen to The Reference, or accept it as such.

From the very broad spectrum of responses here (philosophical, economic, comparative (live to recorded in the same room), scientific, and deductive) it occurs to me that 1) when we're talking or writing or thinking about this enterprise, be it about equipment, recordings, comparison to live music, We Are Not Listening (sound like an Audio Club meeting?); 2) we are a group with *tremendous* imagination.

Use your imagination to listen Into the Music. And beyond the equipment. I'm still trying to learn it. And mood comes into it just as much --perhaps more-- than room treatment.

Make time for Listening. Not just to music, but to the quiet in your room BEFORE you turn on your equipment. Then CHOOSE to allow the music to transport you.

Life asks us, occasionally, to be a skeptic, someone who Jax2 a different drummer: often they, like the court jester, have something important to say. When you listen to music, turn out the lights, take off your glasses, make room in your mind for the same imagination that lets the written word leap alive from the page.

When you make this choice, the Muse-ic will be there to greet you, reward you, and expand your soul. It's in there. Just stop listening to the equipment. Put your skeptical, analytic mind aside and let the music rush in. The price or configuration of your system has naught to do with satisfaction: your decision to enjoy music is where the power lies.

After that choice, everything is play...

Thank you for your patience. The very best to you, and Happy Holidays!

David Kellogg