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Home HiFi better than Live?

From all the magazines and discussions I have seen, it appears that almost everyone of them compares systems and equipment to Live music as the reference standard. That may be the ultimate comparison but it appears to me that I prefer a good home HiFi setup and well produced software to Live music any day. I have been to numerous concerts and never ever get the feeling that the performers are performing for me alone as I do in my own system. I feel alot more emotional involvement from the entertainers in concerts but I don't feel it is any better sound than my HiFi at home.
Admittedly I will say that I do not have the best sense of hearing every nuance in musical performances but I actually like the way my system make warmer, clearer, and softer sounds than live music. Am I the only person who feels this way?
BTW, my own system consists of Levinson reference components and Amati speakers, the analog part is Oracle, Morch and ZYX, so I may be spoiled a bit in this regard.
fwangfwang

Showing 1 response by eclectic

eclectic
4 posts
 
Sometimes home is definitely better! Like when I saw John Mayall's Jazz-Blues fusion group in my home town. Mayall was drunk,the band were telling bad bathroom jokes, using a lousy local PA system, and they were sloppy as hell. The album on my portable was WAY better! But Mayall a few years earlier in a small venue, great sound, with Sugarcane Harris and Harvey Mandel playing out of their minds and these three musicians making enough sound for ten, was another story. On both issues, the MUSICAL one, and the SONIC one, the earlier performance couldn't be had at home. It was a transporting experience that I remember vividly thirty years later.

But listening at home with friends is not to be dissed, either. No, it's not the Mahavishnu Orchestra Live, but it's still pretty damn good to hear Mahavishnu on LP when I consider the odds of being at the real thing again!

I have found that the sonics of live shows varies enourmously and CAN have a negative effect on me if it is simply unlistenable.

But on the issue of what REFERENCE is there for live amplified music: Can you really evaluate how a system replicates the acoustic guitar of Liona Boyd and say -"yeah, it's accurate, so it must be for Stevie Ray Vaughan at 110+ dbs as well"? I have never fully followed the logic of that. It seems it might be more a theoretical measure of home systems than a valid one for a vastly different musical experience.
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