Jmcgrogan2 and Mapman, my musical preference leans towards classical, small jazz bands, and female vocals, mostly unamplified music. The best sounding halls I've been in is the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a small classical music hall at my university long ago. I've been in Orange County Performing Arts Center (terrible acoustics), Dorothy Chandler Pavillion (OK acoustics), Houston Symphony Orchestra (OK acoustics), etc. I love rock, but forget live rock. It has damaged my ears when I was younger I think. I remember a Japanese heavy metal band called Loudness I went to when I was a teenager. It was so loud I was getting headaches with ear plugs. Never again.
I think many recordings are recorded in good acoustic venues and sound darn good through my home system. So 80-90% of the time I prefer my home system over live music.
FYATHYRIO.... |
Rrog, pay attention and read my post again. I did say live music (at least good sounding live music) is my reference. if you haven't noticed, everything on this forum is matter of opinion. I said the speakers are the most important BESIDES THE ROOM. My objective is to reproduce good sounding music in my home, not crappy ones. Pay attention. |
Craig_hoch, try not to be condescending to fellow audiophiles and pay attention to my original post. All any of us have is our opinion to contribute here. If you read my response above, I attend unamplified live music regularly. I'm an amateur classical guitarist since high school and played the piano and sax in the past. I didn't say my system sounds better - I said I ENJOY my home system more than live music for reasons stated above. I said live music in a good concert hall (eg BSO) outclasses any home system I've ever heard. If you have been in the high end for awhile (25 years for me), throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars on a system won't get you good music, if you don't know what you are doing. |
Newbee, I whole heartedly agree with you. |
Rrog, I used to think like you too, but my experience has taught me you don't need to compare your system to live music to enjoy your system. When I listen to reproduced music, I don't think to myself "Wow, I wonder how it sounds live". I just enjoy. Although I attend live music on most weekends, often I find live music is not that enjoyable. So don't get so hung up on live music. It's not the end all, be all to enjoy music. Again, you gave your opinion, as I have. |
Irvrobinson, I agree with you. Live amplified music almost always sounds bad. I go to Austin often to hear live rock, blues and jazz bands, and most of the time I have to leave because my ears can't take the aural assault. But some of the most enjoyable live music I've heard are from solo musicians playing sax or singing with a simple acoustic or electric guitar at subway stations and at steps of city hall in Boston. Another nice place to listen to unamplified live music is Memorial Hall at Harvard University:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Hall_(Harvard_University) |
My Bose 901s did cymbals just right as long as cymbals were made of aluminum foil :) |
Rrog, I think you give live music too much credit. I heard live music screw up the sound of a great acoustic guitar because of bad acoustics of the hall. I play the classical guitar so I pretty much know the timbre of the instrument. The right recording is great better than live in many cases, but not better (timbre I mean, not my playing) when I'm actually plucking the strings. So ultimately, if the moon and sun align live music better, but getting them to align is bitch. We agree ultimatley, but practically live music does not sound as good as some of us have made it out to be. |
Kbark, I play the classical guitar so I know how acoustic guitar should sound like. With the right speakers and good recording, I can get fooled into thinking there is someone in front of me playing the guitar live. It's when you get into complex music like an orchestral piece that the illusion of live music falls apart in almost all systems I've heard.
If you like going to crappy sounding halls to listen to music, more power to you. You gots more choices but for me a bad hall could ruin a performance because whatever the artist intended get screwed up by the bad acoustics. |
The whole point of this thread was to share and get feedback on why I or you may think reproduced music could sound better than live. But I've noticed some will blindly state live is better than reproduced hands down. I agree only on limited (dare I say rare) occasions this seems to be the case. When I listen to a recording at home, it's much more of an intimate experience as if the artist is performing only for me. Like others have stated, I can control the volume, lighting, temperature, etc of my environment. I'm not distracted by others coughing, yelling, BO, and farting(it has happened) next to me. I have to say MOST of the time I enjoy music on my system than going to a live event. |
Have we all been brain washed into thinking live music is better than reproduced without any qualification? For me that qualification is significant. Unamplified live music should be the reference provided it is performed in a high quality acoustic venue. But enjoyment of music, at least for me, transcends whether the music is live or recorded, but many times in favor of reproduced. Some may chastise me for saying this, but I have a feeling many feel the same way but are afraid to say this publically or even admit it to themselves. |
By "better" in the above post, I mean "more enjoyable" just in case someone tries to nit pick semantics. |
Kbark, reasons why one enjoys his home system more than live music IS the original intent of the thread. |
Yea man, who are you responding to? But who wants to recreate live rock concert in their home unless you want to permantly damage your hearing? |
