My son is a cellist. At home the music sounds like a cello played at home. In a large venue a solo cello can sound quite lost unless amplified - but a good quality recording sounds like it really does in the venue, rather than lime a cello at home. (I hope that makes sense!)
Absolutely agree. Music through headphones is a bit sterile and too linear. Not my goal in audio.
Except when the recording was not live…though then it is good if it sounds like live, but so much depends on the recording quality and ambience. Relying on home ambience means every different home will sound different - and either none, or only one home, could sound like the live performance. …
See the Hans response above. It explains perfectly what I tend and try to say since a lot of posts.
A live recording is not a recording in a big stadium. It can be done within a studio. It’s not made in an anechoic chamber and is recorded directly, without much mastering.
Other recordings are made more artificially, with a heavy damped room, and heavy mastering.
Does the colour (flavour?) of the cello really make that much difference?
Flavour! Lime with a k, of course!
The biggest problem is that although you may hear perfect sound (?!), with headphones you cannot feel the music as well, so indeed sterile. (No idea what you meAn by too linear.)
Limoncello? 
ATB Peter
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However you pointed that for you the real sound is to be the closest possible to the recorded album. But even the recording process and rooms can vary a lot…
Considering that many many recordings are multi-track layers where the actual musicians never meet or be in the same venue but e-mail their contributions in from all over the world the idea of a domestic room capturing the live essence of a recording is not tenable for many recordings. This doesn’t mean they aren’t great art…
No,No,No…certainly not in my headphone-system.
I started building a headphone-system in the summer of 2016,.and it has happened,that I had sat and listened for 4-5 hours.
I’ve described that system before,.but I think it was on the old forum.
But for it to be good,.well then it is as usual “Attention To Detail” that applies.
•Tested Powercables.
•Dedicated hifi-rack for the headphone-system (Mana Acoustics).
•Tested Ethernet/Streaming cables.
•Possible pro-tested USB cable.
•Dedicated mains.
•Everything matters,.so correct Nm-value on the audioboard,linear power supply etc,etc.
And of course…
•Headphones.
•Headphone-amp and dac.
•Feets,.and a lot of other things
It is very easy to hear the difference between different ethernet/streaming-cables,.if you listen through headphones.
/Peder🙂
You don’t have the physicality and realism like with good speakers. But only my opinion.
Knowing being sat on top of an empty absorber resonating away, as deep bass notes were being played, simply presented itself as too much of a temptation… ( even realised that the bottom cover is perforated to allow for air flow ).
Work in progress…
Now that feels a lot better…
So the first test parameter after carefully sealing/ nailing the bottom membrane back was the buttock test playing Trentemoller ( a fellow countryman in my case):
There was a distinct longer RT60 time to feel inside the sofa, so say a very deep short burst of a sub 40 Hz
bass note felt to run longer, as a buttock feeling, if at all this makes sense. This I can only interpret as a sign, that the sofa is actually if less distinctly than previously now absorbing bass.
For the purpose of the test of sonic improvements I ran my usual deep bass test tracks incl. Yello, The Pineapple Thieves and Fink Live. At this point it is easy to succumb to hyperbole, and as from previous occasions on this Forum, I shall remain as factual as at all possible.
To say that the music reproduction was now simply night and day would be an understatement. The myriads of details, that I had never heard before was simply astonishing and presented themselves on an inky black back ground. The room has taken on a sonic tightness again not previously achieved and without a hint of overdamping. Any signs of distortions caused by potential uncontrolled reflections has miraculously also vanished. It simply was like having the musicians right there in front of me on the stage. I felt like getting up from my massage sofa and walk in between the musicians and get a sweaty hug, after they had finished my favourite song.
This is a milestone upgrade, which is difficult to put into words, unless you have heard it for yourself.
Do not hesitate to do this, if you have a bank balance to suit.
Thank you Peter
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Cascade Ciscos appear even less as a madness thread than here…Time guys to buy an audiophile boutique sofa! 
PS: I however don’t say that I don’t believe Peter or other set up.
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@frenchrooster,.I know what you mean,.there is a little different presentations of the musical message.
But for me,.they’re just as good,but in different ways.
But it took me almost two years of testing,.before I found the synergy in my headphone-system.
/Peder🙂
Now where is my wife, when I need her…
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Some live recordings or just recordings of albums are made in churches. There is no room ( church) treatment. But the sound may be fantastic. I guess there are church reflexions, but they seem to be not destructive.
I agree, who can’t ? But if in the condition of the recording, in that case the place, there were destructive reflexions for the sound, they should be present in the recording too.