What will it take to have live music for everyone?

I think the other aspect is knowing that it's even possible. I had a musician in my home and he listened to my system and was amazed. His comment was "If Sonny Rollins was any closer he'd be spitting on me." He had no idea that kind of reproduction was even possible. I think most poeple believe that sound reproduction is what you can get at Best Buy--and they don't even sell 2 channel audio to speak of, it's all home theater in a box.

I would love to see a study of people that go to regular live events, such as symphony, acoustical, opera, jazz, and see what percentage have a high-end, or just respectable 2 channel system for reproducing good quality sound. Secondly, I would want to know how many are even aware that you can reproduce music at the level we are talking about. I'm betting these percentages are relatively low.

What will it take? I say education, both the type the Nsgarch spoke of but also awareness that it's even possible.

Yes, education on this stuf is what keeps most people out of it.
Most people never get the chance to hear true hi-fi or even mid-fi. Once they have been placed in front of a true high end system they have a new point of reference.
If you have ever tasted a great bottle of wine or driven a well built sportscar you will have a new appreciation for the possibilities.

Just like with wine though, there is an intimidation factor for the uninitiated. When either audiophiles or wine enthusiasts start talking about their passion those who are not familiar get that glazzed look in their eyes.

Because most have not had the chance to hear what they are missing they will question the cost/reward for a $5K stereo. "Does it get louder? Well my Kenwood has 550 watts which is more than your ____'s 100." Do these same people say "Wow! A $100 bottle of wine. That must get you really drunk."? No. They understand quality over quantity in that instance.

Oh well.

I've placed a couple of folks in front of my system which, is quite good, and they didn't get it, and really had no interest in trying to. You really have to know how to critically listen to both live and reproduced music to first realize what is missing in a given situation, and then to be able to hear when it is present. To most people music is a flat directionless wash used for background(unless their system referance is an explosion coming from some back wall of a home theater) and things like sound stage placement and size, instrument space, cymbal decay characteristics etc have zero meaning for them. They don't even know they are missing anything and they don't know it when it's hitting them in the ears

Hey, haven't there been a few previous posts stating that many musicians own really crappy home audio systems? Go figure?!!

A miracle. When did one last occur?