When I started being a gofer at the radio station I got to go and do set ups for remote broadcasts and remote recordings for making LP's for Barbershop groups, Bands and Orchestras and even a few choirs. Then when the head of the music departments saw what I was doing and when I started college I got involved in recording Operas, musicals, recitals and concerts. Seemed like I was doing something at least twice a week if not more often in addition to makig reordings for a sound company and the radio station. I could make eough money in one week end to pay for a semester in college. Anyway I got a lot of practice and of course I experimented. That why I have Concert Grands at home. Because if I placed my AKG mics or Altec Omni condenser mics in just the right locations, what I heard at home was very very close to what I heard about 20 rows back in the auditoriums or Drama theatre spaces. During this period is also when 1/3 octave equalization came along and made what I was hearing even closer. There was always an issue though. No matter what speakers I chose as monitors even after voicing there was always a bit of coloring. That is till I heard my first pair of Mcintosh XR 290 line arrays voiced. They had those low distortion woofers that really made a difference and that line array of mids.
I still have some of my and my cheif engineers live recordings mixed down to 2 channels. The Bozaks still give the most accurate presentation of the concerts and the spaces they were given in, especially when I add a bit from the rear and side channels. But if you and I really want to hear all that is on those recordings playing the recordings on the stereo system using Mcintosh XRT 28's gives you all the details uncolored. The only issue is the ambience isn't presented as it was in the concert all. You lift the bit of the fog off the recording but in doing so use loose the taste of the hall. Thats why I keep my Grands, because even with the fuzzy slightly color upper bass and the loss of the ground shaking bass belpw 25 hz they make my old recordings come back to life as if you are seated about 20 rows back. The 28's almost move you to the 4th or 5 th row most of the time. Recordings were I to closely miked the performance its almost like sitting on the edge of the stage or standing against the rail of the orchestra pit in front of the stage. We called it the alligator pit at the local college and the pig pin at the A&M college up the the road a bit. The City had two Concert Halls and the 16 high schools had five good concert halls with out pits. I got to know them all well and they all sounded a bit different, with the oldest school in town having the best ambience but was the most difficult to capture a clear clean satisfactory recording. There was one that was almost acoustically dead which made it easy to achieve clarity, but with out ambience.
So I also had to learn how to make a silk purse out of sow's ear. This where to many recording mastering engineers make mistakes. They make recordings to satisfy the performer, director, or their own tastes and the original sound of the live performance is lost. I think it was Karajan that said every one has a different experience during a concert depending where they are seated in the concert hall, I can't disagree. So what's the answer? Only go to live concerts. Thats one solution.
I would say buy the best system you can afford and place it in a complementary space. Neither two hard or two soft with very few resonances and the voice the system. Room Perfect is the easiest. Then choose your recordings carefully. I tend to look back in time when it comes to classical symphony recordings. Swing and big band I just have to be choosey. Symphonic band I choose mostly military, well known university bands. and the Cleveland, West Point and Dallas Symphonic Wind bands. Brass Bands are from Europe as are Ballet companies. I could go on but I wont.
