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Real vs Hi-FI

Interesting - of course it's impossible to be free of expectation bias, especially if you watch the video whilst listening. However, I thought the hifi sounded poor in comparison, there was much less body to the sound - it had a sort of nasal colouration.
The interesting question for me, is how can I possibly come to this conclusion listening via miniscule Dell laptop speakers?

Went to see Christine Collister last night. The quality of the musicianship was beyond doubt, but the sound was not quite what I had hoped. Overall it was remarkably similar to my hifi, except the words were less easy to hear, the bass was much more powerful (even though my speakers are flat to <20Hz) but the notes were harder to differentiate. Obviously my hifi cannot play that loud and the dynamic range is a lot less (due to the recording). Some of the songs came off this disc (very simple and excellent recording using a mobile DAT):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0019LZKAY/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
I have a feeling it would have been better with a better replay system in the hall. Even so, bloody superb. What a voice!!!!
 
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S-Man said:
The interesting question for me, is how can I possibly come to this conclusion listening via miniscule Dell laptop speakers?
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I listened via my pc connected Wharfedale 'active diamonds' and came to the same conclusion.. not entirely difficult to understand when you think of a tv picture of another tv or monitor as opposed to a tv picture raw from a camera of the real thing.. I think it is not beyond logic that you can hear the difference over small 'cheap' speakers too given that I have yet to hear any system even come close to a live band, and i have heard some mighty fine one over the many millions of years I have trod this wonderful earth.
 
Listening on LS3/5a speakers which I know well and have mixed down concerts on. Of course there are differences but sadly it is tricky to tease out where they come from. Much better to have been at the demonstration itself to cut out several chances for the SQ to change.
I attend a free big band gig most months and hear the live sound verses the version recorded on a simple crossed pair or ORTF setup back home. My impressions are that it sounds very similar but you are aware of the room much more on the recording. Solos do not stand out as well on the recording as I remember them on the night but that may be the effect of seeing the performer verses just having the sound on the recording.
The main effect of the live verses recording which hits me every time is the mistakes I hear on the recording which I was totally unaware of at the gig. This is why musicians hate their live performances being recorded, at least this lot do! At a gig they like to go with the flow and perhaps take risks with their solos which is fun and exciting for them and the audience. Knowing the results will be listened to and perhaps mulled over later, restrains them which is not the point of the live gig.
Slightly developing the original point of the thread I know but for me the main difference between live v recording.
 
By coincidence I have a recording of Gregson and Collister, done by a friend with a crossed pair and open reel in a pub in Leeds. It's very realistic sounding but way too much dynamic range for comfortable listening at home - and it's only voices and amplified acoustic guitars.
 
Enjoyable gig in pub last night. Musing on this exact subject; the bit that I could not come close to reproducing at home is the sound of the drumkit. Then again it was also louder than I would ever go at home.

Tim
 
I have never understood an obsession with trying to recreate live. Most of the comments I read where people are enjoying hi fi systems they talk about things that never happen live, tight bass and all that.....

I very seldom hear anything that sounds as good as listening at home. Being there and involved in the performance is an entirely different matter and that's why I go. It would never be for sound quality at a gig. Shut your eyes and even acoustic small ensemble will have bass you would regard as loose or flabby, instruments often harsh or strident etc.
 
Thomas Edison used to do live vs recorded right back in the day.

Modern recordings are not (generally) intended for this sort of comparison.

Paul
 
I heard a very interesting live versus recorded demo at Whittlebury today. The demo used acoustic guitar which was played live and simultaneously recorded - the recording was then played back. The recorded version sounded warmer in the bass, elevated in bass quantity and less defined (just as the speakers in most of the rooms sounded). The top end sounded slightly rolled off and with less attack. In general the sound was less subtle and delicate interplay was less apparent.
 
Drums are nothing like no matter how big and powerful your system is. I know as I sit behind them. I love the shock on a persons face when I show them how loud they are in a room. It usually scares the cr*p out of them. Probably why I'm half deaf now!!

Anyway I wouldn't want to listen to drums like that on my hi-fi as the dynamic range would be ridiculous. Microphones naturally compress drums in a good way. I practice in my band with headphones now and like the sound a little squashed. The idea is to get a good sound and not necessarily accurate
 
It's actually embarrassing to get home after an orchestral concert or even a solo piano recital and put the same piece on....yeh I know my living room isn't the Usher Hall but nevertheless, some plastic cones in a box moving in and out are never going to cut it. Sitting a similar distance from a Steinway concert grand as from your speakers, the comparison is a bit sad.
 
Was amused to find exactly the same problem listening to James Blake in Oxford this evening as I get at home... Everything rattling in response to the stunning basso notes. I was by the bar, and all the bottles were joining in! At home I have real problem with the downstairs loo door, unless its properly closed it flaps at about 40hz. A whole new take on room acoustics, but, to return to the subject, HiFi is there to remind you of live music, it really can't reproduce it...
 
TheDecameron said:
It's actually embarrassing to get home after an orchestral concert or even a solo piano recital and put the same piece on....yeh I know my living room isn't the Usher Hall but nevertheless, some plastic cones in a box moving in and out are never going to cut it. Sitting a similar distance from a Steinway concert grand as from your speakers, the comparison is a bit sad.
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As someone who listens mainly to acoustic music - mostly classical - I've never heard a hifi system that can reproduce a single instrument realistically, never mind an orchestra.

I know there are those who claim that provided a system can reproduce 20-20,000 Hz with minimal distortion it must be perfect, but my experience is that the reality is very different.
 
Fox said:
I want to make music with instrument sounds that cannot possibly exist in real life. There are a million and one guitarists, violists, bassists, cellists, singers, pianists and so on, not one person has yet done anything with the approximation of a bowed bowl instrument filled with liquid nitrogen the size of half of Norfolk.
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I tried thith but my tongueth thtuck to the bowl:)
 
Stunsworth said:
As someone who listens mainly to acoustic music - mostly classical - I've never heard a hifi system that can reproduce a single instrument realistically, never mind an orchestra.

I know there are those who claim that provided a system can reproduce 20-20,000 Hz with minimal distortion it must be perfect, but my experience is that the reality is very different.
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I agree with the first part, but I don't see what the second part has to do with it. The reasons a hifi system doesn't sound like the "real thing" are mostly related to the limitations of two loudspeakers and your room acoustics, and have nothing to do with " 20-20,000 Hz with minimal distortion".
 
Julf said:
I agree with the first part, but I don't see what the second part has to do with it. The reasons a hifi system doesn't sound like the "real thing" are mostly related to the limitations of two loudspeakers and your room acoustics, and have nothing to do with " 20-20,000 Hz with minimal distortion".
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Agreed. Most listening rooms couldn't cope with one acoustic instrument let alone two or three. Trying to listen under those circumstances wouldn't be anything other than painful. I was entertained by a small ensemble of guitar, sax and percussion in a local restaurant recently. The performers were excellent but even in a space far larger than I could hope to create at home the sonics, were challenging to say the least.

The whole point of replay at home to me, is to enjoy music in a domestically suitable perspective. Not one designed for a very different venue.
 
The only reference you have is the file, record whatever ,all you can hope to do is reproduce that as faithfully as possible.
Keith.
 
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