TONE

1+ Edgewound, absolutely true in regard to studio recordings, they are audio artwork. Many recordings were not meant to duplicate reality. Hendrix was one of the first to use audio engineering to portray a surreal experience. Those were the days of LSD. 
But it would not be just the identical equipment. It would also have to be the identical room. However, if your system/room frequency response is reasonably flat and the channels match within 1 or 2 dB across the frequency band, you will hear what they heard plus the distortion of the recording and source manufacturing process. This may not be what you like to hear so modification of the frequency response curve might be necessary. This is an individual preference. I know what I like to hear and given a microphone and digital EQ I can get any system to have the tone I like and maximize its image projection. I can not change the image size which is a matter of the way the speakers radiate. 

You can create a system that depends purely on the source material. With the right source material you can create the dynamics and sound pressure levels of a live performance with a much more detailed image than you would normally get at most venues.
Tone is different than timbre. Tone is a matter of frequency response. 75% of a speaker's character is due to it's frequency response in a specific room. The other 25% is due to it's radiation pattern. Some people prefer bright speakers, others want "warm",etc. This is all a matter of frequency shifts cause by the speaker's inherent frequency response in  a specific room. 
Someone who has a lot of experience measuring systems can tell what a speaker/room is going to sound like just by looking at it's response curve and the design (radiation pattern) of the drivers. The real art is in matching as precisely as possible the frequency response of both speakers and producing the kind of tone desired. One can tell by the imaging of voice how closely the channels match. We are very experienced listening to voices in a variety of conditions while live instruments we only get to hear on occasion. 
Adjusting tone is not hard at all. If you want a brighter sound put a rising response from 5 kHz to 10 kHz up just 2 dB.  Want warm? Lift 100 to 300 Hz just a dB.  Getting the two sides to match is the hard part. Just moving a speaker a few feet will change it's frequency response at the listening position. The same speaker in two different locations will have a different
"tone." This is the reason why some of us think symmetry is so important. Unfortunately, even if you have a perfectly symmetrical situation no two loudspeakers of the same model have exactly the same frequency response. This is where digital EQ excels. With a little tinkering and a calibrated measuring microphone you can get both channels to match within 2 dB from 20 Hz to 20kHz. Above 10 kHz and below 100 Hz are not critical. 
Many audiophiles belittle digital equalization and turn their noses up at it.
Drive an old Triumph Spitfire if you want. They are very endearing. But, I'm going for the 992 GT3...in a manual.