Is live reproduction the goal of audio?

I've worked on stage and in the studio in rock, blues and jazz. No studio recording sounds anything like a live performance no matter who's system is playing.

I have never heard any system that could re-create either a Hammond organ or an accoustic piano. Even the best recordings don't capture the transcients and overtones of a real instrument in a real room. Have someone bring in a trap set and play it in your room. I've never heard a system that could deliver that kind of attack and punch. Have a friend bring by a trumpet, sax, tuba, cello... hell, nearly anything including a kazoo and see if any of your recordings sound like the real thing.

With this in mind, I don't expect my system to sound "live". I do expect it to fill my room with the sound on the recording, capture my imagination and give me some emotional thrills. Sometimes I like to listen casually, sometimes I listen to detail, sometimes I like to rock the farm and sometimes we all just dance. My goal has always been to find gear and recordings that will do all of these well.

I may be in the minority, but I think music is about having a good time and playing with our emotions. Often, I think that the gear may be less important than the musicians and the recordings.

Recently, I sold off a very expensive system loosing many thousands in the process. I had listened to the sales hype, bought the flagship stuff and was stuck with a system that sounded descent on about 10 of my recordings. It never sounded real. The other 2,800 recordings I own sounded like shit. I returned to gear that thrilled me and I've haven't looked back.

Spudco sez:

I do expect (a system) to fill my room with the sound on the recording, capture my imagination and give me some emotional thrills

Amen!

filling the room with sound....now we are talking.

Ok , now if you fill your room with 100% sound . Imagine an empty room. Lots of alive sound ,don't need to raise the volume of your voice to get it to fill the room. Imagine amplified. Now we do need some control , but what is the right amount , and how do we keep it 360 degrees. Everytime we add furniture ,carpet ,people ,etc we are chopping up the #'s.When we place the system into a visual spot we have chopped down the 360 part and now have 2 dimension sound.

We are not talking about components yet. That's the equivalent of a guy with a really deep voice or a guy with a regular voice or a girl with a high voice. The source does NOT matter. How do I let all 3 voices come out right.I need to understand the room.

Yes!

At least that is what I think and strive/listen for. And I think reviewers also look for similar quality. That is why in reviews they use words like 'life like', "as if He/She is right there infront of me", " I can walk around the musicians", " Presence". etc...

Now I know that is the listener's or reviewer's perception we are talking about. If it actually sounds like that in real life is highly questionable. Although the current SOTA reproduction could sound like live event in ear of the beholder, it is quite different then the real live event. It is the subtle ques of real instruments- tone, nuance, pace and rhythm when reproduced gives and impression that listener is listening a live event. Nothing wrong with that if it brings tears and joy to an audiophile.

Yep Live reproduction is the goal of high end audio. The goal so close and yet so far...

Lakefrontroad wrote "I am interested in how our community views what we do." Except for Jax2 who tries to inject a laxative into this constipated thread.
Sociallite has many good insights, I wish I was so good at writing.
The common goal here seems to be finding your own idea of perfection. Rock groups used to say they needed to have a "sound". Likewise the system needs to have a certain pervasive "sound" which it imparts to the music. Maybe that sound is "no sound".
The difference between consumer goods and industrial purchases is that consumers tend to change out stuff more often for the latest and greatest, emotional reasons, boredom etc. while businesses buy for more pragmatic reasons; ie: to serve a specific purpose. Look at those desks from the 50's the State still uses. Functional but that's about it.
I would vote for sound which is not annoying or detracts from my enjoyment of the music. A system which pleases on its own terms. Then adding more detail and volume at the frequency extremes as long as this does not cause problems.

I don't want some "technically perfect / musically dead", hyped up, nervous, twitchy, race-horse of a system that I can't relax with. When listening to my p.o.s. system, I enjoy the *music*, don't worry much about the *sound*. That, to me is a major success.
Besides you don't have to own stuff to enjoy reading, talking, and learning about it. I think the term is Armchair Ace.