Do we really know what "Live" music sounds like?

Back to the amplifier + speaker. If you want the system to have live music, the key is on the right pre. Preamplifiers could be very different,some very high price pre could filter some sparkle of the recording,which you do not know if you do not compare.

@axo0oxa

I am fully agree with you and you are talking the details which I do not on my prior post. Thank you!

The key word to description the while story is "imitate", we use electric device to imitate the live sound, which is completely different things ,but let you feel almost same, and let us enjoy and happy. It is the movies, and it is the carton movies, and try to tell you the real things, which is far far away.

I suddenly find a good example now. In old times, when the society is not so stable, the president have one or more than one substitutes, and they will attend some public ceremony ( Usually the substitute do not speak a lot as it will expose the different with the real one). The real one is the live music in the music hall and the substitute is the music system home,which does not matter how much expensive the devices are.

The internal principle is different, and different by far, and they just try hard to imitate the real one. That’s it.

When I listen to my system or another, what I listen for is the sound stage, pin point localization of the musicians, decay, harmonics, detail, how deep the bass goes and is it details or just one note bass, mid-range beauty and many other details that appeal to me and therefore makes the piece of music enjoyable. A lot of times, particularly if it is electric rock type music I say, it sounds better than going to a concert. If it is classical it can still sound wonderful to my ears and warm my heart, but I cannot get out of my head that I am in a much smaller room and no matter how wide the sound stage in all directions it never sounds just like being in a large concert hall, but still very enjoyable. The bottom line is I build a system to appeal to my ears, room, and budget with the end goal of a very enjoyable listening session for me and anyone else who comes over to listen, but never do I believe it sounds just like a concert I had attended. As @runwell mentions above, it is a great imitation of a concert I attended or maybe even better in the sense that my room is very comfortable and with good acoustics since I have spent a great amount of time and thought in treating the room, but at 12' by 15' it has it limitations.

If your ears and brain enable you to fill in the blanks for a reasonable amount of recordings, you've got a good "lifelike" system.

What the OP reports out of listening live is so important. There are some who will accuse that kind of realization as unnecessary or snobism in terms of guaging what's important in a system. But real live unamplified ans minimally amplified music are the best guides.

The best audio I have ever heard involve Class A tube amps in terms of capturing lifelike tonality and instrumental body.