How close to the real thing?

Live performances have a different dimensionality based on seating, hall ambiance, and all the little nuances that make it "real" to some. You can't catch it all in a recording. A guy that trips up the stairs, or a couple giggling a few rows back. These things make it "live" for us.

I think of it as analogous to watching a well done movie of a plane flying through Grand Canyon. If you watch it on your 20 inch Sony you are getting 10% of the experience, but if you watch it at Imax, closer to say 80%.

I've heard huge Rockport's or Verity's nicely set up that bring you very close to to live. I'm going with 80%

All we need is five guys, earplugs, blindfold and a big box, like a Wilson crate, and a hand-truck. Also a Budget rental truck or even a pickup would work fine.

We lug the guy around to few different venues over the coarse of a couple nights. We uncrate and crate him up again after the venue. Maybe he gets a few cheese sticks and some water too. The guy takes notes and reveals them at the end of the experiment. Piece of cake. I'm good with a hand-truck.

What's with the hot brands of 2002? Take some dramamine.

Last time I listened to a live concert on my system I stood on my couch with a cigarette lighter for the encore. The next day my wife asked why there were burns on the ceiling. Oops.

I have friends that perform in the Boston symphony, a best friend that builds guitars for some of the top classical and flamenco performers around the world, friends that dance the clubs in London and Manhattan.

None of them are at all interested in sitting on a chair and listening to a pair of speakers. They have the real "rhythm that is music" and don't care if it's an ipod or a five hundred thousand dollar system. They have the talent to feel the music under any circumstance.

I guess this may be more of being drawn into music. If you have music in your soul you can listen through a tin can and feel the spirit. If you need a certain cable to get interested you might think about finding another passion because music is too much for you to handle. At this point it's the gear you want.

Generally IMO the test of a system is if you love to sit and listen to it. I have a friend with a pair of M5's in a great room. They sound slightly bloated to me but we listen to them at concert levels for hours each week. I have another friend with the Wilson Maxx 3's. Very different from the M5, perhaps more transparent, but I never want to listen to them for more than an hour. Great stage, etc. but man, maybe if was a little older I would need all that intense information placed for me.

I don't think playback can be the same for any two individuals. Sure we can agree on a set of principles, or try to talk about what is real, but we can never trade our very slight preferences if it is real to us.

To build on what Timlub says about musicians preferring different strings, etc.

I know a luthier who flies around the world to choose all his own sustainable wood stock. He looks closely at different internal bracing for different sounds and player preferences. He might choose Honduran Mahogany or Cedar for a neck. Brazilian Rosewood is his preference for bridges. Saddles, soundboards, fingerboards all the more complex. Some of his finest guitars sell for 30k. So many details and such artistry.

Have to say I'm leaning more toward 40% when I really think about it. We are all blessed with the ability to even experiment with audio and I'm happy to have the ability to squabble about it.