what would you suggest as a means of recording / reproducing music?
I'd suggest a Soundfield microphone(my avatar), UHJ(horizontal surround) or even better B Format(surround sound with height) recorded onto a suitable digital medium, then reproduced with an Ambisonic decoder(I'll explain this further a bit later)
I was sort of under the impression that good stereo is pretty fantastic - remarkably similar to the real thing, I thought?
It can provide *some* of the cues of live music, but there will always be the phase problems from mic spacing, also the incorrect mapping of sounds from all directions to two front speakers. Alan Blumlein aswell as Bell Labs knew this as early as the 30's, yet settled on Stereo as being "close enough" and convenient(only needs two speakers, formats of the time were mono, so when stereo vinyl came along in the 50's?, only then could it be implemented etc)
I am at the moment listening to du Pré (also now dead) playing the Elgar cello concerto with the London Symphony (situated on another continent) conducted by Sir John Barbirolli (dead) recorded nearly 40 years ago, and the performance is stunning and really enjoyable.
Being a classical fan, you've really lucked out. The way most classical concerts are mic'ed is by hanging a stereo pair in front/above the orchestra, this is a very good way to accurately capture the sound of the orchestra/concert hall(in stereo). Add to that the fact that the music you listen to will have gone through no/very little processing(eq, compression etc), I'm sure your collection is quite possibly among the most accurate reproductions stereo recordings have to offer.
Unfortunately, a lot of other music(pop,rock,some jazz) is pan-potted close-mic'ed mono in disguise as stereo, which has none of the cues of live/unamplified music. Add to that possible eq, compression etc and it becomes a sad state of affairs, as far as "recreating the event is concerned".
Not trying to be sarcastic, just curious what the alternatives would be?
The alternative/better would be Ambisonics.
Developed mostly by Academics this side of the pond, it's a way of capturing sound accurately within 3 dimensions(front/back,left/right and up/down) and then mapping it correctly to your speaker setup(regardless to some extent of speaker position, you can tell the decoder where the speakers are and it will compensate)
Even though it's been around for 3 decades, very few people have even heard of it. Mainly thanks to the people entrusted with getting Ambisonics out there, they were really only equipped to find a sole company to market Ambisonics, when what it needed was many, many companies getting involved.
As proud as I am to know it was mainly a British thing, if it had been in the hands of the Americans or the Japanese, the situation could of been a lot different and many of us might be enjoying the superiority of Ambisonic recording/reproduction.
A few links for enquiring minds:
Ambisonics main site
A short introduction to Ambisonics
A very good indepth, but not too heavy article, reccomended reading for all
Soundfield microphones website
Funny, I didn't latch on to any sarcasm in your post
