With live-recorded acoustic music, an excellent audio system should be able to fool the blinded listener into believing the musician is in the room with them.
Amplified music like rock concerts present a lot of sonic variables depending on listening position, but a great audio system should be able to replicate what the front of house sound mixers can hear at the ideal position of their mixing boards...center spot about as far from the stage as the stage is wide.
Headphones won't work, because we need our skin to feel the vibrations of the music for it to be like being there at the time of the recording. High efficiency speakers with low distortion and stereo bass reinforcement powered by amplifiers with generous power reserves seems like a minimum requirement.
Studio albums are wholly different because they usually aren't trying to capture a "live" sound. They are making a piece of sonic art whose characteristics are subject to the whim of the artist and recording engineers. But sometimes they still sound great loud.
It's nice to be able to play realistically at concert levels, even when you prefer not to.
Amplified music like rock concerts present a lot of sonic variables depending on listening position, but a great audio system should be able to replicate what the front of house sound mixers can hear at the ideal position of their mixing boards...center spot about as far from the stage as the stage is wide.
Headphones won't work, because we need our skin to feel the vibrations of the music for it to be like being there at the time of the recording. High efficiency speakers with low distortion and stereo bass reinforcement powered by amplifiers with generous power reserves seems like a minimum requirement.
Studio albums are wholly different because they usually aren't trying to capture a "live" sound. They are making a piece of sonic art whose characteristics are subject to the whim of the artist and recording engineers. But sometimes they still sound great loud.
It's nice to be able to play realistically at concert levels, even when you prefer not to.