Are there any speakers that output sound essentially indistinguishable from a live performance?

[antennaguru]

As I previously mentioned we go to see amplified music performances 10-20 times per year from these seats which are in the middle of the center orchestra section. We sit immediately in front of the mixing board that controls the House System. I think a picture will help so am including one. Please note the yellow outlined Line Array House Speakers hanging from the ceiling on each side of the stage, that all of the music is wired into via the mixing board by the engineer sitting right behind us. IMO these are the perfect seats for a great (2 Channel) stereo image from the House System Line Arrays, and there is no meaningful obstruction in the sound path, and only a "floor" of human damping/scattering ahead of us.

Unfortunately, more than half the time the sound is mixed to mono from both Line Arrays. Occasionally the mixing engineer gives us a stereo mix.

 

[Tom C]

You guys are going to think I’m full of it, but after I got my Eons dialed in (took me six months), streaming Maggie Rose via Apple lossless was a whole lot like being back at the Grand Ole Opry.
The house sound reinforcement at the Ryman is a pair of JBL line arrays, one on each side of the stage. The logos can be seen easily from any seat close to them. I don’t know for a fact, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Opry also uses JBL.

 

[Wes]

 

[MattHooper]

My personal preference is, generally speaking, the sound of live instruments over reproduced.

I understand why others can prefer good recordings, instruments recorded under better or ideal acoustic circumstances and the like. But for me the gulf between the richness of real acoustic instruments and reproduced is so wide I will prefer acoustic instruments, even in non-ideal acoustics.
As in: gimme even an average fiddle played in a bar, over a strad recorded in a hall but played back through a sound system. The live fiddle to my ears has that much more presence, aliveness, nuance, power, etc.

I live next to a main street on which live street bands are usually playing (plus plenty of bars with live music). It doesn't matter if the drums are out in the open air, or situated near some building reflections, I note that the sheer power and presence of live drums to be more pleasurable, and driving the music, in away the average hi fi reproduction of drums only hints at.

 

[Robin L]

View attachment 142459

No fair.
Powered by McIntosh, if I'm not mistaken.

Grateful Dead and the Wall of Sound

 

[Robin L]

My personal preference is, generally speaking, the sound of live instruments over reproduced.

I understand why others can prefer good recordings, instruments recorded under better or ideal acoustic circumstances and the like. But for me the gulf between the richness of real acoustic instruments and reproduced is so wide I will prefer acoustic instruments, even in non-ideal acoustics.
As in: gimme even an average fiddle played in a bar, over a strad recorded in a hall but played back through a sound system. The live fiddle to my ears has that much more presence, aliveness, nuance, power, etc.

I live next to a main street on which live street bands are usually playing (plus plenty of bars with live music). It doesn't matter if the drums are out in the open air, or situated near some building reflections, I note that the sheer power and presence of live drums to be more pleasurable, and driving the music, in away the average hi fi reproduction of drums only hints at.

I know what you mean about drums. It's one of those sounds where the upper level dynamics are always flattened when recorded, no matter how well recorded [Dafos? I'm looking at you!]. There's a jump factor that starts getting squashed the moment the sound hits the microphone diaphragm. Most of the time those peaks are deliberately squashed so the drums can fit into the mix.

On the other hand, deliberately distorted, totally artificial sounds attract me more in recordings than attempts at realism, in part because the most exciting aspects of "Live" sound are the first to be filtered out by the recording process. Also because I appreciate the art of coming up with new sounds.

 

[dasdoing]

this should make it obvious that the goal is ilusional with stereo:

Do you feel like you are in that church?

even if you use something like ambiophonics it wont work if it is not a binaural recording, since the ambience is limited by the stereo micing.

 

[escksu]

As I previously mentioned we go to see amplified music performances 10-20 times per year from these seats which are in the middle of the center orchestra section. We sit immediately in front of the mixing board that controls the House System. I think a picture will help so am including one. Please note the yellow outlined Line Array House Speakers hanging from the ceiling on each side of the stage, that all of the music is wired into via the mixing board by the engineer sitting right behind us. IMO these are the perfect seats for a great (2 Channel) stereo image from the House System Line Arrays, and there is no meaningful obstruction in the sound path, and only a "floor" of human damping/scattering ahead of us.

Unfortunately, more than half the time the sound is mixed to mono from both Line Arrays. Occasionally the mixing engineer gives us a stereo mix.

View attachment 142416

I have to say its quite unavoidable today.

Many concert theatres today just a big rectangular-like room thats not specially designed to reflect and amplify acoustics. So, without speakers, those further away from the stage will have a hard time hearing the performance.

And then, there is also the band itself.... Louder instruments will easily drown out the vocals without mic and speakers.

 

[antennaguru]

I have to say its quite unavoidable today.

Many concert theatres today just a big rectangular-like room thats not specially designed to reflect and amplify acoustics. So, without speakers, those further away from the stage will have a hard time hearing the performance.

And then, there is also the band itself.... Louder instruments will easily drown out the vocals without mic and speakers.

There is no problem hearing vocals or any of the musicians' instruments, and the acoustics are good considering this is a transformed old time small town movie theatre with under 450 seats including the balcony (which has worse sound than where we sit). We sit in a perfect triangle to the rather sophisticated line array house speakers hanging from the ceiling on both sides of the stage that all of the music is mixed onto, but most times every musician's music comes from the center of the stage only - due to the lazy practice of mono mixing onto the house system. At home we enjoy pinpoint stereo imaging and the sound quality is far better overall - but we still spend money on live performances for the experience of impromptu things that happen live, and to support musicians and a facility we are glad is available to us.

This is in answer to the OP that asked does a home speaker/system ever sound as good as live music, and my answer is that as far as amplified music goes my home system sounds far better, but we still go to see live music anyway.

 

[escksu]

There is no problem hearing vocals or any of the musicians' instruments, and the acoustics are good considering this is a transformed old time small town movie theatre with under 450 seats including the balcony (which has worse sound than where we sit). We sit in a perfect triangle to the rather sophisticated line array house speakers hanging from the ceiling on both sides of the stage that all of the music is mixed onto, but most times every musician's music comes from the center of the stage only - due to the lazy practice of mono mixing onto the house system. At home we enjoy pinpoint stereo imaging and the sound quality is far better overall - but we still spend money on live performances for the experience of impromptu things that happen live, and to support musicians and a facility we are glad is available to us.

This is in answer to the OP that asked does a home speaker/system ever sound as good as live music, and my answer is that as far as amplified music goes my home system sounds far better, but we still go to see live music anyway.

What I was trying to say is that the music and singing is very audible because their have mics and speakers. With these equipment, vocals would be hard to hear.

 

[escksu]

My personal preference is, generally speaking, the sound of live instruments over reproduced.

I understand why others can prefer good recordings, instruments recorded under better or ideal acoustic circumstances and the like. But for me the gulf between the richness of real acoustic instruments and reproduced is so wide I will prefer acoustic instruments, even in non-ideal acoustics.
As in: gimme even an average fiddle played in a bar, over a strad recorded in a hall but played back through a sound system. The live fiddle to my ears has that much more presence, aliveness, nuance, power, etc.

I live next to a main street on which live street bands are usually playing (plus plenty of bars with live music). It doesn't matter if the drums are out in the open air, or situated near some building reflections, I note that the sheer power and presence of live drums to be more pleasurable, and driving the music, in away the average hi fi reproduction of drums only hints at.

Let me ask you 1 question: without mics and speakers, are the vocals audible? Do you think it would be drown out by other instruments if there are no mics and speakers? And then, try sitting 2m from a live band for 1hr. Do you think it seems too loud after 1hr? Does it seems relaxing or tiring instead? Of course, there is surrounding noise.

So, both live and recorded sound has its own pros and cons.

 

[redshift]

This is what I was wondering as well. Even the orchestral stuff I’ve been to typically has sound reinforcement throughout the hall. I mean if we’re talking about sheer acoustic power from the big arrays that power a concert, the solution is quite simple: big high efficiency speakers and unhealthy amounts of amplification. It doesn’t cost as much money as you expect in a home setting.

Plus last I checked, most live shows have audiences. What the heck do you all think the noise floor is at any concert? Honestly now.

Yeah, the sound in those outdoors concerts suck, loud and bad. Beer helps to flush the pain down. I went to a few and then decided it wasn’t for me.

And besides, which musician performs live in anaechoic conditions?

Of course you’d want to capture the room with the artist(s) and audience in it.

 

[stevenswall]

I think many accurate speaker systems in mono could fool people in a blind test provided the instrument was mic'd very close and there was no compression applied to the recording or occurring with the speakers.

 

[antennaguru]

Let me ask you 1 question: without mics and speakers, are the vocals audible? Do you think it would be drown out by other instruments if there are no mics and speakers? And then, try sitting 2m from a live band for 1hr. Do you think it seems too loud after 1hr? Does it seems relaxing or tiring instead? Of course, there is surrounding noise.

So, both live and recorded sound has its own pros and cons.

From where we sit the show announcer often comes on stage before the mixing engineer is at his station, to provide updates about showtime and the time left until the show starts. He doesn't have a particularly loud voice and is clearly audible and intelligible without a live mike and amplification, when that is not available to him. However this venue is NOT used for unamplified music performances so I cannot speak to anything about that. We have also seen several stand-up comics there and they sound great mono from the middle, over the house system.

 

[escksu]

From where we sit the show announcer often comes on stage before the mixing engineer is at his station, to provide updates about showtime and the time left until the show starts. He doesn't have a particularly loud voice and is clearly audible and intelligible without a live mike and amplification, when that is not available to him. However this venue is NOT used for unamplified music performances so I cannot speak to anything about that. We have also seen several stand-up comics there and they sound great mono from the middle, over the house system.

Is there a live band playing when he is talking?? I am very sure his talking is inaudible if there a band is playing while he is talking...

I have seen "technical failures" during a concert (only twice) where there is suddenly no sound from the speakers (no idea the cause but dont think it matters).. I simply cant hear the singing at all (only see mouth moving). Instruments are clearly audible but not the singing.

This is not unexpected. The intruments combined are simply louder than the singer's voice.