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It Happens Every Time I Calibrate

It happens every time … being disappointed with the sound of my system after recalibrating my ears to a live performance.  I just returned from a performance of Mendelssohn/Balanchine A Mid Summer Night’s Dream at the NYC Ballet sitting first tier/center at the  David H. Koch theater enveloped in the sweet, liquid sound of the orchestra and chorus, and entranced in artistic cue of the choreography.   The design intent of my system is founded on reproducing accurate timbre, reproduction of micro and macro dynamics, and organic imaging. Friends that have heard my system comment on the natural, sweet, liquid, dynamic and dense reproduction of recorded music. But it does not come close to a live performance. Much has to do with the recording.  Some of the better ones get close.  Regardless, even with my best recordings, there are certain artifacts, such as the way strings are reproduced where the sweetness and liquidity is not as pronounced, or the complexity of woodwind or brass instruments is not as prominent that make it clearly evident reproduced sound is far from absolute.  My disappointment in my system will last a week or so until my ears loose there calibration, and I will be happy again with my system until the next time I go to the Met, Koch, or Carnegie.  Do any of you have similar experiences?

jsalerno277

Showing 1 response by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,860 posts
 

Live concerts done well are the reference standard for sure. 

Acoustics of a concert hall is way different than any room at home.  So it's not realistic to try and replicate. 

You can measure the spl at the concert with a smartphone app and keep that for reference to see if you can match it at home.   Then you might work on replicating the soundstage you heard at your location at the concert on a smaller scale at home.  Then see what you got with some high quality recordings. 

 

Very wide dispersion/omni design speakers like mbl and Ohm are especially good at creating a live like soundstage in your  room at home.   At the other end of the spectrum highly directional designs, not so much. 

 

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