How to achieve the LIVE sound? Like you ARE THERE?

[rjp366]

From what I have read and to a lesser extent, what I have built and experienced, I think these are some of the most important things for a sound that is LIVE like there is a concert in your living room. Please add comments about scientific facts if possible, or your opinions from actual experience. See if we can add to the following list and rank the items in relevance.

I am talking about the whole experience, not just the volume. The perfect speakers would still sound real at low levels as well as high levels. They also would sound real at many different listening positions.

THANK YOU for your comments!

SPL: it must be loud enough

TONAL BALANCE: it all must be loud enough, not just mid-bass and treble.

EFFICIENCY: I think high end pro drivers and/or horn drivers tend to help achieve the effect we are talking about here. Focal, PHL, Klipsch, etc....

POWER RESPONSE more important than FREQUENCY response, I guess?

TRANSIENT RESPONSE

"fast" light weight cones?

LOW DISTORTION

PHASE COHERENCY

DRIVER TIME ALIGNMENT

FULL-RANGE driver? or hybrid full-range with more bass added like the Nomad Audio "Ronin"?

ADDITIONAL amplification for each driver like the Orions?

ACTIVE crossovers?

[jerome69]

TONAL BALANCE = SPL +-3dB = POWER RESPONSE
PHASE COHERENCY : good phase tracking is needed
LOW Intermodulation distortion
GOOD dispersion
LOW DISTORTION
POWER HANDLING

Additional things to the Loudspeaker :
- Amplification : must supply a lot of current !
- A room with space and good damping.
- Records and the technology LP/CD/HDCD/SACD/DVD-A etc.?
- The Player

It's my vision, Hope this helps.

[Moondog55]

How Much Bass Is Enough???

[MaVo]

This argument of mine might stretch things a little... but live sound is usually achieved by cost-effective speakers in large venues, or with other words, bad speakers in big places. How do you achieve this sound? Well, use lots of cost effective speakers in a big place.

Ok, apart from these obviously useless musings, to achieve a "they are here" sound, you have to place the performance in YOUR room. The only way to do this is to use a speakers design, that looks at the room as part of the reproduction chain. You have to excite your own rooms reverb in a controlled manner. Look at Earl Geddes Summa paper on www.gedlee.com.

[StigErik]

Please remember that no recordings exists that represent an actual acoustic event like a live non-amplified concert. Recorded music is designed (mixed) to sound nice on a pair of speakers, and not like the the real event. Often a recording sounds "better" than the real event.

I gladly accept that listening to music over a 2-channel stereo system is NOT like "being there".

Ok - it can be justified to do a live event comparison with classical music, but not when its recorded with just 2 channels. 5.1 surround sounds a lot more like the real event, but even 6 channels is far from enough for you to "be there".

By the way.... what was the real event when Michael Jackson recorded Thriller?

[Jan Dupont]

I agree to most of the statements in these posts, however some live recordings just do sound so much better and have a very close to "live" sound......

I'm also use a 2-channel setup, and no one could force me to "downgrade" to 5.1.

With the right setup, a 2-channel can just sound soooo gooood

[jrockhead]

All you need is some Reverb supplied by a Yamaha Rev100 or REV500.

[cbdb]

I'm also use a 2-channel setup, and no one could force me to "downgrade" to 5.1

If properly recorded and played back, its not a downgrade, its the best way to reproduce the "room" the live music was recorded in, and therefore much closer to "being there"

[cbdb]

And unless you listen alone the sweet spot is wider with no phantom centre, (or do you like the vocal moving out of centre when you move around)

[Jan Dupont]

Do they use 5.1 in the recording studios now ?