Optimum seats for a concert?

At the NJPAC, most seats have excellent acoustics, although the best I ever sat in were in the first tier balcony, front row. My subscription seats there are in Row J of the orchestra, as that's my preferred distance from the orchestra; you get the proper blending of the orchestra, but you're close enough to get a feel for the energy of the performers. At Avery Fisher Hall, the only seats I've really liked there are row O, center orchestra; getting closer to the sides or the back adversely affects the sound. Carnegie Hall, I like the front of the balconies, but still prefer the orchestra seats, about rows J-M. Sitting closer does give you more of the direct sounds of the musicians, but I like the better blend from a bit back. Sugarbrie, I once tried to go to the 5th tier at the PAC to listen from a side box, but I just couldn't take the height, I'm afraid.

Abstract7: Some muscians I know tend to prefer the Terrace D on the left. This is the piano side (you said stage right above), but it is considered the left side of the hall for ticket purposes. Start there. What night/series do you usually go?

The Kennedy Center is better since the renovations when Slatkin came a few years ago. Not sure what are the best seats.

Sugarbrie: I'm doing series E, but I have a few I've had to change--like the next one, but then I've kept the rest of the season.

Anywhere but in the pit, where I sat for a number of years. Down there, where many players now wear earplugs to protect their hearing, one is highly focused on production but inattentive to the overall sound, which one cannot really hear, anyway.

There's an apocryphal story really understood only by pit musicians about two bassoonists who played side by side for two decades. Unexpectedly, one took a week's vacation right in the middle of the season. The first night he was away, his colleague looked up out of the pit and there sat his friend in the 10th row. Amazingly, he was there every night for a week.

When he returned, his buddy said, "I can't believe it. For twenty years you never take a vacation, then you take a week off and spend it sitting in the 10th row."

"Yeah," exulted his pal, "and you wouldn't believe what I heard. You know that part where we go BOOMP-boomp-BOOMP-boomp-BOOMP-boomp-BOOMP?"

"Sure. I know that part. What about it."

"Well, man, while we're doing that the orchestra is going (bursts into the Toreador Song)."

You may respond to this with a blank look but tell it to anyone who has played the same score every night for three months and they'll fall out of the chair.

Anyone else here done any pit playing???

As a general rule of thumb, I've found that the highest seats available, and as close to center as possible, provide me with the best results.

I don't know much about acoustics, but my reasoning is simple:

Most audiences at symphony performances don't know how to sit still and keep quiet through even one movement, let alone an entire piece. When I sit up in the "cheap seats", there usually aren't many people up there, and I am therefore somewhat isolated from crowd noise.