The best reference is live music

the idea is that the best systems tell us what the recording engineer wanted us to hear. sometimes that is live to 2 track and so locations of instruments do match the video or picture. but also this simple mic'ing technique might not allow us to hear the instruments very distinctly. in a perfect world we would have many mics all around to catch the individual instruments and also the hall effects plus perfect mixing and so we get placement plus the whole cohesively. hard to do.

and YouTube recordings have limited bandwidth, even though i agree many are very enjoyable.

a few years ago i attended a live Seattle Symphony concert of a work by a friend of mine. sat mid hall right in the center. row M. i enjoyed the concert, but the sound and detail was muddled. the bass was in and out. later my friend gave me a file of the recording of the concert i attended.

it was much more clear and laid out in my home system. the elements of the music and the bass was much more distinct and easier to follow and enjoy.

for sure this is an anecdotal case, and not always how it goes. but the live music experience is very inconsistent. at it's best it is much better than the reproduced experience. but it's many times not as good as far as the sonics and understanding.

i do agree when you add the visuals to the recording then there are insights to be found. i have a separate home theater system with Dolby Atmos 9.3.6 speakers and it can result in a fun experience. but for me the best sonic experience is my 2 channel when the performance and engineering of the recording is top notch.

I had  7th row center seats to the Oregon Symphony for a decade. 7th row is known as the audiophile seats because of the ratio of reflected to direct sound. In these seats the sound hole of the solo violinist is pointed directly at the seat as is the reflection surface of the piano. Instruments are distinct if played separately and blended when played. When the symphony is recorded, the primary microphones are nearly directly above these seats.

If you listen to recordings of the same concert you attended, you can easily hear the difference that the people in front of you make as opposed to being "hung in the air" above the seats.

This is an excellent way to work towards a natural musical sounding system That correctly portrays sound.

Since my time at the symphony they installed a multimillion dollar DSP sound system to make the symphony sound better. My system at home now sounds far better and more natural and more musical than attending one live. Which is way I stopped attending.  Sometimes technology is not better. I spent my career choosing appropriate technology for specific purposes, which sometimes means not to because it is too soon. 

So it goes. 

In the Eagles DVD concert "Hell Freezes Over", Joe Walsh and Don Felder (guitars) stood side by side making some inspiring music. It is easy to know which one is playing due to the 5.1 format and the visual clues on the screen. On the CD of the same concert however, the recording engineer made the decision to put them on opposite side of the podium. The effect was quite pleasing and unmistakably the right thing to do, for obvious reason.

I am saying this to say that: fidelity is not the be all and end all when it comes to music reproduction. We are not only dealing with science, but we are also dealing with art. While science is immutable, art is very personal. Add to that the fact that we don't necessarily hear the same thing and you would realize that whether your system does a good job at reproducing live events, while an interesting question, is rarely what keeps us up at night. Maybe we should try to answer this question: Is your system pleasing to you? I think the answer to that question will indicate whether we are still tweaking, upgrading or staying put and enjoying the music.

For me personally, I feel good that my system can recreate live performance but to be honest, I usually listen to music at a much lower volume than live music and usually sit in a more comfortable setting than a stadium or concert hall venue. At the end of the day, I couldn’t careless how the music sounds in real life, I listen to it only if it pleases my ears. These are my 2 cents and certainly doesn’t reflect how other music lovers feel.