Does Your System Sound Like the Real Thing?

Sometimes my system sounds better than real - I like it better than the real thing that is, but it doesn't sound real and I doubt it can ever sound real in my lifetime.

Unfortunately I've never compared a real piano in the same listening room...
As you may know even different pianos sound different so the most precise answer is
"I don't know".

I agree with Jond. I am often amazed at how close my system is when I play music back at close to the recording volume (or what I think it is.) That is usually a lot louder than most people listen.

Also, how many times has some sound come across and fooled you that it is not the system but in the next room, etc.?

Of course it sounds LIKE the real thing! Do you think I would have spent all that time and money just to get some poor replica of the real thing? Now if I could just take it the last hundred miles and have it BE the real thing. :-)

This is the ultimate question and the answer for me has
always been "of course not". But, it's not what I expect.
Just like sex, music is more in the mind than the body.
If that weren't true, any music reproduction
system would be worthless.

I would like to set up an experiment where musicians
play live from behind a curtain, then live from a remote
location with the sound reproduced using the best mics,
amps, cables, and speakers behind the curtain.
I bet ANYONE could tell the difference.

In my experience, the part of music reproduction that
causes the most "damage" is the recording itself.
This was made clear to me many years ago,
and often since, while listening to radio.
WFMT (a fine Chicago radio station!) was playing
recorded music, as usual, but then switched to a live,
non-recorded performance from their studios. The
change in the quality of music reproduction was immediately
apparent. I've listened carefully to the difference
between live, non-recorded music and recorded music in
any medium (tape, LP, direct-to-disc, CD, HDCD, SACD)
and non-recorded music certainly comes closest to real.

TJ