live versus reproduction

[Purité Audio]

Dutch & Dutch attempt to reproduce a live musical event so accurately you will not be able to distinguish live from reproduction.

Keith

 

[amirm]

Ah, I thought they were going to show that somehow in the video!

I guess it will be at the Dutch hi fi show end of September. Anyone going? And is it a decent sized show?

 

[Soniclife]

Isn't this the oldest trick in hifi? I sure I read somewhere that Edison did something like this.

However if this is done as a DBT, where people know that the test is live vs hifi, and it passes then it will be impressive.

 

[Cosmik]

Isn't this the oldest trick in hifi? I sure I read somewhere that Edison did something like this.

However if this is done as a DBT, where people know that the test is live vs hifi, and it passes then it will be impressive.

It reminds me of the founder of Wharfedale speakers, Gilbert Briggs.

Gilbert also staged legendary concert hall demonstrations during the 1950s, using Wharfedale loudspeakers, which featured live versus recorded performances with celebrity musicians of the time. The venues included the Royal Festival Hall (four times) and Carnegie Hall, New York (twice), but his first such experiment was in St George’s Hall, Bradford, in March 1954 – enthusiastically reported by the Telegraph & Argus – with a more sophisticated follow-up in April 1955.

The demonstrations were sell-outs and Gilbert’s sense of humour was a key ingredient. His colleagues in the audio field initially thought he was mad to attempt these demonstrations in the largest halls available using only equipment available to the general public, but he was a natural showman and proved them all wrong.

 

[fas42]

If they sort it out carefully beforehand then they should pull it off - the level of attention to detail will be the deciding factor, IMO.

 

[Fitzcaraldo215]

I may be deceived by the video. It appears D&D may use a trick, which is record the performer in an anechoic chamber. Then, if they do live vs. playback in a dead, absorbent room, they stand a good chance of sounding close or even indistinguishable.

Acoustic Research (AR) was famous many decades ago for a similar demo in a room in Grand Central Station using a string quartet that would silently "bow synch" passages to the recording or play live. The taped recording had been made in the anechoic deadness of an outdoor setting, and the playback room was fairly dead. People were impressed after they found out they were hearing a recording vs. live. But, the visual cue of the "bow syncing" probably helped fool the minds of listeners.

I suspect that as long as there is a reasonable acoustic match between recording and playback venues, a lot of today's better speakers could pass this type of test even in blind stereo listening. But, at the same time, stereo just does not reproduce an adequate replica of what we hear in a live concert acoustic, as with classical music, at least not for me.

 

[Purité Audio]

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https://www.puriteaudio.co.uk/forum/everything-else/live-or-recorded

Keith