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How close to the real thing?

Recently a friend of mine heard a Chopin concert in a Baptist church. I had told him that I had gone out to RMAF this year and heard some of the latest gear. His comment was that he thinks the best audio systems are only about 5% close to the real thing, especially the sound of a piano, though he admitted he hasn't heard the best of the latest equipment.

That got me thinking as I have been going to the BSO a lot this fall and comparing the sound of my system to live orchestral music. It's hard to put a hard percentage on this kind of thing, but I think the best systems capture a lot more than just 5% of the sound of live music.

What do you think? Are we making progress and how close are we?
peterayer

Showing 1 response by musicslug

musicslug
430 posts
 
what perspective is 'real', sitting in the middle of the orchestra or 40 rows back?

I personally like the 'first 5 rows' type of recording (as opposed to the 25th row...), so sometimes a recording is MORE enjoyable than sitting in the audience - assuming the mics were close in and my hypothetical seat is not in the first rows.

I was recording a concert lately, with my mics right up by the musicians, and I ended up listening to the concert through the headphones instead of 'naturally'. I could crank it up, and it was like I was next to the instruments (bliss!).

(and it sounded even better at home, since my headphones are crap and the home system is nice...).
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