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Getting out of HIFI !

tomek said:
Don't spent to much money on hifi gear, go and listen to the real music !!!
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Where do I have to go to listen to Moody Blues, Camel, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Amon Düül, Eloy, etc. live? There are many worlds beyond classical music (which I also value highly).
 
Joe Hutch said:
And a sense of irony is a £5k upgrade!
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It's a bit like spending a bit more on the extras on a BMW or other car. The car still goes from A to B but if 5 spoke alloy wheels make the driver feel better why not and not forgetting a 0-60 speed gain of 0.5 second. And a bigger depreciation on the car. I know where I would sooner spend my money of the two choices.
 
I thought the point of a Hi Fi is to give enjoyment to the listener.

My Hi Fi does not give the feeling of live music, well maybe on a very few records, but it sure sounds so enjoyable to listen to.
 
tomek said:
When you listen to some greater orchestral works, you will have no doubts, that there is no system on earth you can buy for any money which can reproduce a good orchestra

The difference is so huge, all this hifi gear is becoming so ridicolous, just peanuts :)

Don't spent to much money on hifi gear, go and listen to the real music !!!
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I agree with the first and last point quoted, and the point others have made about listening to both.

I've only heard a full orchestra once in the last year (London Phil.). However, I've heard lots of chamber groups and mini chamber orchestras in that time.

One thing I've noticed recently is that live music is much much cheaper than really great hifi.

Is the difference so huge, hifi is ridiculous? I had an interesting experience a couple of months ago. There are a couple of classical music CDs I've got where I've heard the musicians/conductor involved play the same music live. It never sounds as good as the live performance at home, though it is very entertaining nevertheless. The interesting experience I had was listening to it on a system that was the most expensive the particular brand made (a few tens of grand). The interesting experience was when we swapped from using an expensive stereo power amp to using two mono power amps. For the first time, I heard stuff from the CD that I hadn't heard since hearing it live. Information that I'd always assumed just wasn't on the CD in the first place. Subtleties in the way the particular soloist phrased stuff, dynamics going on between different sections of the orchestra. This was a real 'wow that stuff is actually there on the CD' moment. Diminishing returns?

Not in this case.

Of course the mono amps cost more than a first class airline ticket, as well as the cost of the concert ticket. However, the amps last longer than a few hours. We get to keep hifi for years or decades.

In London we are fortunate as some of the greatest and most popular classical music is played a couple of times a week at St Martin In The Fields church in Trafalgar Square, and all for about 10 quid. Though classical music is played regularly elsewhere too.

I'm not just into classical, I'm mostly into Rock, however it is nice to hear instruments without the mini-hifi of mics and PAs getting in the way.

One incredible experience I've had a couple of times in the last year has been to go along to the open teaching sessions that happen occasionally at places like a Royal College of Music. The student or small group of students would play about a couple of minutes from a piece of music I'd never heard before. Then the teacher would give them some pointers. They'd then play this piece of music I'd now heard once, again. And they'd play it better. The teacher would then give them some more pointers. They'd play this piece of music I was now increasingly familiar with, even better. This would go on about four or five times.

At concerts you normally only hear the music once, whereas at home you can play the recording multiple times back to back. To hear it live several times back to back was amazing.

I also had an experience a couple of months ago of hearing an ensemble rehearse Brandenburg 3 over and over again, before the concert. One of the best musical experiences of my life.
 
...but only for so long, it'll come back and bite you then you will be on the treadmill all over again.

cue demonic laughter, add reverb to taste
 
Greg said:
Hey, thanks for the update. The phrase "means business" springs to mind :)
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He put in a lot of effort and he is critical enough to improve the sound quality according to his taste which is according to him the sound he percepts in the concert halls.
I heard his system again today. He came to a point where he has no clue how to improve. After his last changes he hasn't had time to do a real check. At the moment he's taking in consideration the critics given from his guests and he still has to first listen to the hundreds of CDs which he bought lately and never had the opportunity to listen to. :D

I do believe, that hifi systems can do realistic music reproduction. I'm not referring only to Titian's system but for others which I heard.

A big MBL system in a show for example. Before the show I could hear it alone and it impressed me a lot even if the room was certainly not perfect. I had some critical points which for me were not "Live-like" (size of the instruments and sharpness on the high frequencies) but I'm sure with adjustments these points could be solved. The same for a system with the Grand Utopia. I heard several times such a system but only once it gave me the feeling to be somehow in a concert hall.
The point that mat_mcg wrote about is certainly a problem. A Mahler symphony have peaks in the 10th row of around 100 -105 db(A). Hearing at that level could give serious problems with neighbours. A hifi system can though be able to do realistic music reproduction only in acoustically optimized rooms. Normal rooms would influence too much the reproduction especially at those volumes. A dedicated listening room with a certain size is necessary and normally those rooms are not in houses with neighbours behind the wall.

Very many hifi systems can reproduce music with peaks of 100 - 105db(A) so this is not a issue. The main problems are the accuracy of the sound when reproducing at these levels especially during the big jumps of sound level (pianissimo to fortissimo for example), the coloration and relation between direct - indirect sound. The later is very important to give the feeling to be in a concert hall.
 
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