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What is it I'm failing to grasp?

I come across statements here and elsewhere by guys who say 1) their systems come very close to duplicating the experience of hearing live music and 2) that they can listen for hours and hours due to the "effortless" presentation.  

I don't understand how these two claims add up. In tandem, they are profoundly inconsistent with my experiences of listening to live music. 

If I think about concerts I consider the best I've witnessed (Oregon, Solas, Richard Thompson, SRV, Dave Holland Quintet, '77 G. Dead, David Murray, Paul Winter Consort), I would not have wanted any of those performances to have extended much beyond their actual duration.

It's like eating-- no matter how wonderfully prepared the food, I can only eat so much-- a point of satiation is reached and I find this to be true (for me) when it comes to music listening as well. Ditto for sex, looking at visual art, reading poetry or playing guitar. All of these activities require energy and while they may feel "effortless" in the moment, I eventually reach a point where I must withdraw from aesthetic simulation.

Furthermore, the live music I've heard is not always "smoothly" undemanding. I love Winifred Horan's classically influenced Celtic fiddling but the tone she gets is not uniformly sweet; the melodies do not always resemble lullabies. The violin can sound quite strident at times. Oregon can be very melodious but also,(at least in their younger days) quite chaotic and atonal. These are examples on the mellower side of my listening spectrum and I can't listen to them for more than a couple hours, either live or at home. 

Bottom line: I don't find listening to live music "effortless" so I don't understand how a system that renders this activity "effortless" can also be said to be accurate.   

What is it that I'm failing to grasp, here?  


 

stuartk

Showing 1 response by socalml528

socalml528's avatar
socalml528
121 posts
 

Too many variable here:  Live: listening to Pat Methany or Dave Brubeck sons at the Lobero in Santa Barbara is vastly different from listening to Santana in Las Vegas or at the Microsoft theater.  In the live setting the venue is almost more significant or as significant as the artist; as is the live sound engineer. 

I thought I'd enjoy Zak Brown band live but the Irvine Amphitheater had the worst sound dynamics ever; the band sure seemed to play their hearts out, but the sound production was awful. At one concert in Vegas the volume was so loud that I found it better to stand in the lobby or risk going deaf.  Makes me wonder if many Rock engineers are deaf.

At home; the recording quality and format takes precedence maybe more than the artist. Assuming your space and equipment are dialed in;  At home you control the volume and music selection; above 100dB you may not enjoy the music for long but you have the volume control music selection at your finger tips.

 

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