Apparently I've never reached the critical distance then
I have a different view than some others on this. Some people say they find "good" recordings of instruments better than the real thing. As least with acoustic instruments (and frankly usually electronic instruments too - I played those as well), I don't find this to be the case. I pay a lot of attention to the differences between real and reproduced sound. It's not only somewhat part of my job as a sound editor, it's a life long habit of comparing real to reproduced. What I find is that, for me, I would take listening to someone playing a "cheap" acoustic guitar in front of me over "the best recording" of a "great acoustic guitar" on a sound system. That's because I hear a combination of subtlety, warmth, acoustic presence and timbral complexity that tends to go missing once an instrument is recorded and spit out in a hi fi system. A cheap real guitar sounds sonically richer to me than an expensive guitar reproduced through audio systems.
Same with pianos. I can hear them from close or far away and when I close my eyes it's always "Damn, no reproduction I've heard captures THAT."