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 veroman

Obviously this is a silly question but..... What kind of live music and in what setting? a symphony? dont even get me going. the reflected sounds and omni directional noise coming form the instruments is simply never going to be replicated that well. we listen to a representation of live music, not live music of course. We can sit in a concert hall and listen to the loudest mahler or wagner and never fatigue or feel strained . our biology knows real naturally produced sound when it hears it and there is no effort by the brain to correct it. some of these posts have said as much. other than that we are arguing over who has better mechanics.