A lot of good points have been made in this thread.
One thing hasn't been mentioned, though, which is VERY important: the gear itself. MOST audio gear will NEVER be able to better than roughly approximate something that our brains can re-interpret as "live-like" sound.
There are a few systems out there that CAN sound live. Imagine you take all the electronic set-up of a rock band on stage, and simply replace the inputs from microphones and pick-ups with excellent reel-tape studio recordings made from the performers and their instruments. Play those back through the regular amps and speakers the band uses, in the concert venue. The result will be as if the band itself were playing! Why? Because when you listen to that rock band live, about 99 percent of what you are hearing is the relatively tiny sounds picked up by those mikes and pick-ups (except for the percussion). Just imagine the electricity supply was cut off mid-performance... how much sound would the literally "unplugged" band have (using their electric guitars, not switching to acoustic ones)? You'd hear percussion, a relatively weak singer, and precious little else at a normal listening distance. The rest is the amplification: get an accurate recording, and a similar system will (re-)create a "live" sounding performance.
How about an orchestra, whose sound comes from instruments that produce much greater volume without amplification? It's still possible... but the only system I've ever heard in my life that could do it was a no-expense-spared system built around Infinity IRS-V speakers. Look at how many drivers they have (102, IIRC), and they were being powered by several thousand watts, in a room that, while large for any typical home standards, was much smaller than a concert venue, and the whole set-up was professionally well-tweaked for acoustics, the speaker placement and system set-up being handled by world-class experts flown in for the job.
Every other system I've ever heard --including many ultra-expensive and very fine systems right up to last year's best offerings at the hi-fi show-- couldn't capture truly "live" sound (AR 3as certainly couldn't!
).
BUT some came much closer than others.
I'm sorry to say this to the OP, but I don't think it is possible to get truly "life like" sound from that gear. A G-2000 is the bottom end of the "G" range, and while sounding sweet enough, won't produce "live" SPLs for an entire group. Those bookshelf speakers are probably the weakest/limiting link in the system, though --and the TT and cart have their limitations. Under the best conditions, they'll still not reproduce "live" sound 100 percent.
That said, you can probably get MUCH closer and better sound than you suspect, with enough tweaking. It's worth putting in some effort, to get the most you can from that gear. When played at its best, it should still sound pretty darned good!
:yes:
Here are some things to work on. I won't go into much detail, because it is all out there already, in the archives (and some just above, in this thread). Focus on each of these things in turn, and you'll hear your system improve:
1. Make sure your gear is operating correctly, as designed. If that G-2000 is still running with the original electrolytic capacitors in it, and perhaps other components that may have drifted off-spec over the years, the sound will be at least somewhat degraded. In this case, get it re-capped. Are you sure your TT/tonearm/cart system is set up properly? Did you use a spirit level, protractor and set-up records, etc... to get that stylus tracking as perfectly as possible in those grooves?
2. Try improving the gear itself. This doesn't necessarily have to mean costly upgrading. Sometimes adding some extra acoustic stuffing or bracing in a speaker can improve the sound, or dampening the plinth of a TT, or tightening down (or isolating with nylon washers) a vibrating transformer, etc... can make a positive difference.
3. Consider your support surfaces. Are your speakers and TT on the same surface? (Hint: I think they are, from the pics.) That greatly increases the chances of destructive feedback of vibration between them. Get those speakers isolated on their own stands (blu-tack them to heavy, inert stands spiked at the bottom, for a starting point). Isolate the turntable well. (What kind of floor do you have? If it is concrete slab, you probably won't have much problem with floor vibrations from footfalls, etc... but if the floor is suspended wood construction, then you'll have to deal with this.) ISOLATE each thing that vibrates (or is sensitive to vibration) physically from each other, for a quieter and more accurate system.
4. Improve your electrical input. The sound you hear is actually superimposed (slight simplification, but it works) on the power sine wave that your system draws from the power grid. That wave is made "dirty" by the other appliances and such operating from it. Get a separate power line for your gear if you can, or at least remove "noisy" things like refrigerators, fans, air-conditioners, etc... from the circuit you use for your audio gear. It's a good idea to put some form of noise isolation, such as an extreme isolation transformer or stabilized power supply (or if you can afford it, a power regenerator) before your gear. Secondhand, some of these things are not expensive, and they will upgrade your whole system. I found a bunch of medical-grade toroidal isolation transformers at a scrap-metal place that were in like-new condition, and run all my noisy appliances like my computer and fridge off of them. That "tweak" to the rest of the household made my audio system sound better. Modern dimmer devices and ceiling-fan controllers "chop up" the wave-form: I replaced mine with variacs and my radio reception went from almost un-listenably noisy to very clean and clear. Do whatever you have to, to feed your gear a clean electrical wave.
5. Look carefully at speaker placement; figure out where the ideal spots in your room are likely to be (for both speakers and listener), put things as close to those locations as circumstances allow, and then experiment with moving things little-by-little until you find the optimal placement.
6. Try some room tweaks: things like bass traps in corners, refraction panels (or carpets or ceiling panels) at reflection points can make a difference. Making a room more or less "live" through addition or removal of things like drapes (just opening or closing them), upholstered furniture, etc... can make a big difference.
7. Outside/background noises can have a serious impact on our listening experience, that we often aren't consciously aware of, especially if you live in a busy/crowded city or apartment block where neighbors' noise can be faintly heard. I notice in the wee hours of the morning, around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., I can hear the tiny mechanisms in our battery-powered clocks running, from across the room, or even in the next room. During the day, I cannot hear those sounds, even though the room feels "quiet" to me. Why? because of the low-level sounds creeping in from the outside world during the day, because I live in the middle of a congested, noisy city. Anything you can do to lower background noise will help. I added dampening and insulation to the inside of the case of my living room dehumidifier, smoothed over some inside areas (for less turbulent air-flow) and torqued down the case over thin nylon washers (to reduce case resonance), and quietened it considerably. I'll turn it off during serious listening sessions anyway, but otherwise when it runs during "background listening" or listening in a nearby room, it's better to have it quieter. Similarly, keep your refrigerator coils clean and get that --and your washing machine, dishwasher, dryer, etc... up on vibration-isolation pads, perhaps with dampened cases, too. ANYTHING you can do to lower the background noise level will improve your sound quality.
8. Get those records of yours CLEAN. Buy or make an RCM (record cleaning machine) if you don't have one already. Read up on using glue and other techniques for cleaning. Get a zerostat and use it. It's harder to hear "realistic" sound when it is filled with snaps, crackles and pops, than when it emerges from silence.
9. Don't forget that most recordings won't sound live, because they are ... recordings! Recordings made using only two top-quality microphones spaced about head-width (perhaps 8 inches) apart from a "sweet spot" in a venue will usually sound the most realistic. Direct-to-disk, done well, can be great. But nearly all recordings are made through mixing boards and all kinds of gear, with a lot of decisions about how things "should sound" being made by the engineers. The result will be how the engineer thinks we want to hear the sound, not a perfect reflection of the actual sound. Most recordings will never sound "live" no matter what system they are played back on -- but they can still sound very, very good. A few recordings can sound truly live, if played on the right gear, but the "right" gear is usually extremely rare and expensive.
The fun of this hobby lies in the pursuit of perfection, not necessarily in the accomplishment of it. Get tweaking and modifying, start experimenting, and as resources allow, start upgrading. You'll be rewarded at each stage with improvements (Of course, if a given change doesn't bring improvement, then change it back!
). You'll probably never hear a recording in your home system that is really and truly indistinguishable from a live performance... but as you get close(r) to that quality, you'll get a heck of a lot of listening enjoyment along the way!
:yes: :thmbsp:
... A lot of recorded music is meant to sound like something else..it's meant to sound like a good recording. And that is still pretty amazing to me. That these little marks on a vinyl disc can turn into a pretty amazing approximation of real life music in my room is just fantastic. I love it! And of all the formats, I love vinyl the most. It just feels and sounds right to me.
Quoted for truth, for a lot of us! :thmbsp:
A very great many things must go or be done exactly right to get a near live experience from a sound system. If the speakers seem to disappear when you sit back and close your eyes your system is getting just about as close as it can get. ...
That "speakers disappearing" is something I use as a dividing line between regular music systems and "audiophile" systems. If I can close my eyes and point to where the speakers are, that system isn't "audiophile" at all.
Soundstage is also critical: can you hear precisely where performers are located? If I can point to the singer's mouth, and it is the sonic size of a singer's mouth (not ten feet wide, and vaguely defined!), that's a good sign. If the sound of the singer's foot tapping tells me whether the speaker is seated or standing, and how tall (s)he is, that's good. If I can tell whether the floor is wood or cement, and what kind of soles the shoes have, that's even better. If I can point out where the drummer is, and tell exactly how much higher the cymbals are than the snare drum, and which side of the bass drum the snare drum is mounted, etc... then that is good. If I can tell from the sound whether the drumstick hitting the cymbal is plastic or wood, that's even better. If the singer and the drummer and the guitarist, etc... are each in a realistic place in relation to each other, and not squished together between the speakers nor flattened into a movie screen-like plane, that's good.
Sound quality plays a role, too: I listen for things like realistic attack and decay, dynamic range, and so-called "PRAT" (the simple explanation of PRAT --pace, rhythm and timing-- is "does toe-tapping music really make me want to tap my feet?"). Does a piano (one of the hardest of instruments to re-create accurately) sound like a piano, or a pale imitation of a piano?
These things come from different factors: Linn introduced "PRAT" in its advertising because that is something its players could deliver reasonably well --although ironically some of the idler-drive TTs they were using the concept to compete against actually out-perform the Linn TTs on exactly that measure, once transplanted into massive plinths (but who knew to do that, back then?). IF your source --recording and source playback gear, such as a record and TT-- don't have it, no later gear in the chain can add it. Dynamics can be expanded or compressed by later gear, but it is best to have them in the recording, as much as possible. The final transducer --the speakers-- are absolutely critical to a "lifelike" performance. Synergy and impedance-matching between components can be critical. Cables don't have to be ultra-fancy, but they have to be sufficient to transfer the signal without loss or interference, at least "good enough" --and cables can affect sound, up to a point.
There is too much complexity involved in audio -- too many compromises and trade-offs inherent in each design approach-- to say that there is one "perfect" way to re-create sound. But that very complexity makes it possible for us to spend years in the hobby, without running out of things to try and improvements to make. Along the way, each improvement brings added satisfaction. And underlying it all, should remain that sense of amazement that JohnVF referred to, at the marvelous, fantastic way that a squiggle in vinyl really can make an almost-live performance appear in our home.
). If your like me and have a family to support first over getting the best sounding setup then you have to be resourceful and dedicate a bit of time to research, tweak and match. 
