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High expectations when listening to an orchestra

If you listen to an orchestra and expect to hear the real thing, you’re certain to be disappointed.
There’s no way you can come close to that experience  with your equipment.  An orchestra in your listening space is an impossibility. Therefore you have to adopt a “suspension of disbelief.”  In other words, trick yourself into believing it’s the real  thing.  You have to bring your imagination to the equation.
The degree to which you can suspend your disbelief, will determine how much enjoyment you get.
Of course, the better the quality of your equipment, the closer you will come.
With lesser forces than an orchestra, such as a few instruments or solo instrument or voice, the easier it becomes to approach reality.
rvpiano

Showing 1 response by clearthinker

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
The key reproduction issue on full orchestra is massed violins.
However good your system is, they just sound mushy or glassy with an applied gloss or sheen that is not present in the concert hall.  This certainly degrades the listening experience for me.

This effect seems to be associated with the high frequencies of violins since it does not affect massed cellos or basses.  I think it may arise from the reality that all the violins cannot be precisely tuned and so there are intermodulation artifacts that amount to distortion and are reproduced as that.  Whilst such conditions apply to cellos and basses also, it appears they are not reproduced as distortion.  Indeed, on my system basses especially sound very similar to in the concert hall.

Miller, please don't tell me to buy Moabs.

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