The Better My System Gets....

....the less live music shows I seem to be attending. I live in the NY Metro area and used to go to live shows all the time. But I'm doing it much less frequently these days and think two things are at work. First, I've been upgrading my system over the past two years and am now getting some pretty serious sound right here in my living room. Second, I'm finding that unless the venue and the sound crew are optimal, I'm hearing some pretty bad sound at a lot of live shows. I've sworn off large stadium-like venues for years now because the music is really secondary to the spectacle and chances are the sound is going to be really bad. But even smaller venues these days tend to get it wrong more often than right. Combine this with crowds that are often noisy (Does anybody go to hear the music anymore? Why do people insist on trying to talk over the music? Aren't there better places to mix and mingle?) packed rooms without seats, expensive drinks, ETC and I find myself more inclined to listening at home rather than out. We have some small local venues that do a pretty good job and the crowd is older and more respectful of the musicians so this can be viable alternative to listening at home. And, of course, classical and chamber music presented live in a proper room is still superior to what I can reproduce at home and so I go to quite a few of these performances but more and more I'm passing on a lot of shows because I often get more out of cranking up my home system that going out to hear live music performed in less than ideal conditions. Anyone else experiencing the same thing?