I’m going to go way out on a limb here and say that 100% of the membership of this group enjoys (quality) music. Live music. Reproduced music in our listening rooms. Showers. In our vehicles during our commutes. On the water. Under the water. In the air. Alone. With friends. Outdoors.
I’d also like to submit that we don’t enjoy live venues where the music is (literally) painful, or the acoustics and/or persons running the sound board present a sound environment where the energy of reflected sound exceeds the energy of the direct sound. Or, bad recordings at home. Or, blown tweeters. Or, when the neighbor’s idea of an "outdoor musical experience" ioverpowers our concept of an "outdoor musical experience" at our home. Or, when someone pulls up next to us at a traffic light and the low bass energy shakes OUR rearview mirror.
"Immersive sound" is a marketing term that begin a few decades ago back when I was a peddler of audio/video gear. It attempted to "sell" the concept that if you bought an <insert brand/model> that the experience would be so up close and personally that it would be literally indistinguishable from being in the hot tub with your all-time favorite recording artist/pinup. I sold lots of "immersive" systems in the day.
When it comes to enjoying music at home, I prefer the phrase "suspension of disbelief", which is to say that for some moment in time, you cease to believe that you listening to arificially created prerecorded material, and are, in fact, IN the music venue WITH the performers. The number of channels required to pull this off is debatable. Some suggest that 2 channels is the "correct" number. Some say more.
In my world, "immersive" translates to:
- at home
- room temperature, volume, sweet spot, music, and number of guests selected by me
- dog at, or near, feet
- beverage (hot or cold) (boring, or otherwise)
- fully resonating with the performance where 99.9% of what’s left of my brain is engaged with what is happening sonically in the space
My wife and I enjoy live music as well. We attended Moondance Jam, a live music festival in Walker, Minnesota a few years ago and camped out in our(small) motorhome. It was a blast. Interacting with people made the event what is was. Expecially "meeting" the attractive young lady who forgot to lock the door on the Port-a-Potty. The sound was generally awful, about 10db over my preferred listening level for live music. We, literally, went back to the motorhome at one point, opened the windows, sit at the dinette table, broke out some wine and listened to the performance there. Joan Jett’s crew managed to get the sound right. Others, not so much.
Okay, it’s time to immerse myself in some oatmeal, and buttered toast. Afterwards, my goal is to suspend the disbelief that I’m an old guy when I take one of my hot rods out for a drive.