You are there-they are here

If you have an accurate system working properly everything you hear sounds a little, or a lot, dissimilar relative to soundstaging. Acoustic pianos ALL sound different, engineers can make drummers sound properly in a nice area or 67 feet wide (did he have his girlfriend play that tom fill on que from a restroom stall?), orchestras might as well be on different planets, etc. I try not to care too much and enjoy the fidelity and the musical ideas with some people right in front of me, surrounding me, stuck to the walls, or in a mono mix piled on top of each other...it can all be good, but it's all different.

In my experience (mostly as a musician) recording drums has always been interesting. It often takes forever to get them set up, but soundstage placment is merely a matter of stereo panning. By carefully panning each drum mic you can put 'em anywhere, but for some reason engineers seem to have to do the "across the entire stage" view sometimes...my fave jazz stuff is often OK...Mehldau comes to mind as all his studio albums seem to have a similar tone and soundstage...drums are in the right spot. You can place some stereo reverb carefully to widen and warm the things without getting weird.