On 12/11/2017 15:21, Woody wrote:

snip

At least with a good quality CD it does sound a bit like the real
thing - but how many people go to live concerts (I'm thinking
classical in any form, jazz, big band or MoR here) these days to know
what real instruments actually sound like?


'A bit'? In my experience of mainly rock/pop, nothing like a live
performance. Even if a domestic hifi could achieve the volume levels,
it'd take a heck of system (and room) to reproduce the bass etc and
'venue' acoustics of live music.

As for jazz etc it's always been amplified IME - even some (apparently)
world class performers who for reasons uncertain take in Sheffield as
part of their circuit. So to know what a 'real' instrument sounds like
becomes complicated for a lot of us. Classical music can sound
impressive, and close I'd imagine to a live performance - but I'd only
go to maybe one classical concert a year. It's certainly not 'being there'.

I have a few notable exceptions in my collection, mainly acoustic
instruments. My favourite is a Louis Armstrong one-take set, from the
60s IIRC. The woodwind instruments in particular sound absolutely
uncanny - real 'in the room' stuff. On vinyl, of course :-)

On the OP's query - the point of expensive CD players - I'd list
aesthetics and badge-value as significant variables. Huge diminishing
returns in terms of audio quality - if that.

Speakers and room are the most important variables, given that the
source and amplification are now pretty much sorted for not obscene
amounts of money. The ATC speaker based system I have at the moment is
the best yet in terms of dynamics and presence. I feel the only
improvement I could make now would be to move house.

I had a Quad electrostatic based system for a while. Very impressive -
if you sit still :-)



--
Cheers, Rob