Especially if it’s Springsteen, fortunately there is a mute button on my system. Sorry I know lots of people love that kind of stadium rock, but I’d sooner stay home and listen to Françoise Hardy at reasonable volume.
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Watching Gladys Knight live recently trying her best to get everyone involved, and that she is really trying to connect with you. And that she loves you.
Maybe I’m a fool, as I felt that connection.
You guys.
If someone was in your listening room whilst you were in control of the remote.
They started getting up and whoop whooping and dancing…You would be mega pissed off ?
I have been to some more quiet concerts and have had other more snooty nosed types asking for due diligence - where really it wasnt needed.
Why can’t I get up and enjoy what I have paid good money for…
Thoughts on sound quality" as such is perhaps particular to one particularity and susceptibility to experiencing “Quality”. Whatever that means over " everyday" sensibilities.
Perhaps I am an old git … but I took my wife to see the Overtones…we sat in the Bridgewater Hall - waiting - and I took a good look at the speakers - and I was worried. Allot of moderately sized high power cabinets with intermediate horn tweeter arrays interspersed - with cables like hoses connecting them. When the intro act came on - I thought blimey thats loud!! Then when the Overtones came on they hit there fist chord - and I shrieked in pain - with tears rolling down my face - I pressed my fingers into my ears as hard as I could - and it still sounded like 90+ dB at home. Unfortunately I was so pre occupied saving my hearing - I did not check my phone dB meter. I recon it must have been pushing 110dB … it was the worst experience ever. What amazed me was everybody else didn’t seem phased and sat there nodding there heads. Seriously I though the whole concert was Health & Safety Issue… If they had turned it down by 20dB it would have been great. What is it with the so called engineers setting up the equipment… I think they just have one setting on their amps and that is the max. From memory I had a similar experience with Ultravox at the Cornwall Coliseum donkeys years ago…I had to go to hospital then to have loads of toilet tissue taken out of my ears!!!
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In my twenties i saw Black Sabbath i was at the back right up in the “gods”. It was too loud, my ears were ringing for days, convinced my hearing was never quite as good after that concert.
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I’d did two consecutive nights of Motörhead when I was at university. Left ear has never been the same again, say what?
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Loudest I experienced was a Deep Purple gig (I think) in about 1971 or 72, (London’d Rainbow theatre or Hammersmith Odeon possibly) that left my ears still ringing next morning. It didn’t seem too loud at the gig, and it was common to experience the quietness of the tube train after a gig, but not normal for it to continue into next day. That was before sound level limits started to be introduced by some licensing authorities.
The only times I have experienced pain has been with shrill sounds. The worst was Thijs Van Leer’s flute at a Focus gig, again around 1971-2, and that was despite being 3/4 of the way back in the auditorium. I found, however, that I only had to move my head a little to move out if the highest pressure point - unfortunately most effective was rotated, giving me a crick in the neck! Seated venue otherwise I’d have moved. Otherwise occasionally over the years, most recently last year with Pigs on the Wing (an excellent Pink Floyd tribute band, that otherwise didn’t seem excessively loud apart from some guitar notes. As a standing venue I edged to my left, and about a foot of movement place me clear of it and all sounded fine.
Of course if it is the entire sound that is too loud rather than just individual notes then if a standing venue you can try to find somewhere a lot further from the speakers. Alternatively take earplugs just in case - you can get ones that reduce sound level but have reasonably balanced attenuation so quieter without that muffled effect cutting high frequencies too much, which should enable you to be able to enjoy the live performance without pain or without worrying for your ears.
I agree 100%
Beautiful Speakers, I almost ended up with a pair 3 decades ago!
Unfortunately, I ended up with a pair of Kans!
Fast forward two decades later, I really enjoy my Round Earth Room. The 2008 stereophile award winning Vienna Acoustic Baby Grands maintains that large sound with a small foot-print.
The two 6 inch woofers are amazing!
My dealer has them in, and he really likes them, will listen at some point.
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I really think the HSE should issue guidelines at venues regarding maximum spls I dont think the engineers realise or even care what they are doing … harming people…
It’s a problem, isn’t it? You want to get up and make a noise for your enjoyment. That ruins the enjoyment for others. Their insistence that you sit still and keep quiet reduces your pleasure. What can be done?
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Erm, lightbulb moment! Get a hifi system and listen at home! Now, that’s an idea worth considering… I wonder what other people think of the idea?
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Do you think it would catch on?
Not sure - after all you apparently need a player of some sort - presumably it plays the music instead of people on stage doing that, and an amplifier - presumably to make the player seem as big as a stage, and speakers - usually two - must be because the player can’t talk even when made bigger by the amplifier. And you have to fit that in your room, and not just jumbled in a heap…
But you can choose who is going to play, at your own convenience. You don’t need to buy a ticket, and you can pick the best seat every time. If you want you can even stop the music if you want to go to the toilet - they don’t do that for anyone at a live performance! (Well, maybe they might if the Queen was in the audience and Prince Philip went and asked nicely on her behalf).
You know, it just might catch on!
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I used to attend live music regularly but gave up unless dragged by my wife. I found it could boil down to three issues:
- Amped music (rock, blues, jazz etc.). So loud I can’t even make out the lyrics. Just an uncomfortable smear.
- Unplugged music (blues or jazz). Intimate venues that pride themselves on giving the audience the real deal. Totally unbalanced. Percussion bites through everything and after a while in a small venue is still painfully loud.
- Unplugged orchestral. Probably the symphony halls had the best balance but it is always a very diffuse sound and transients above a certain frequency seem wooly and cut off. Probably absorbed by all the soft bodies of the audience…and the seats are foxtrotting hard!
So I prefer hifi replay every time. True fidelity is subjective when you don’t know what to compare against but at least I can play at a loud volume that isn’t making my ears bleed; balanced it a way that is not a drummer plus his backup instramentalist; and on a seat that doesn’t make my bum hurt while wondering where the top end went.
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Bruce,.1985…and High Volume
Springsteen plays at London’s iconic Wembley Stadium during his “Born in the U.S.A. Tour.”
Example:1985,.when Bruce raises his arm in the air,.On Stage, In a crowded arena and singing…
Born In The USA,.Born In The USA.
And the whole crowd in the arena also raises his arm and sings with.
It is a completely euphoric experience of community and emotion.
If you have not been through such an event,.you unfortunately do not know what you have missed.
There,.of course,the volume of the music plays an important role.
It is so completely obvious that we should not have to discuss it here.
An arena-concert includes the entire experience of…The music, People, Expectations, Euphoria and that you have been involved in something unique.
•Sit quietly in a smaller concert-hall,.where someone “plays sparse music on a piano”…It is not bad.
But,.it is not possible to compare with what I describe above.
@ChrisSU,…I fully agree with this,.and we are fully in agreement 
.
I am allergic to bad sound,.both at home, in pubs, concert-halls and large stadiums.
You should be able to hear every tone that is played.
Both from bass-drum to bass-guitar and upwards…Just like in your music-system at home.
Then it will not be hard for your ears,if the music is a little higher.
And as I wrote earlier,.all this responsibility lies with the sound technician.
•The most important person at a Live Event.!!
An example of the importance of the sound-technician.
Tina Turner was known,for having very good sound at her arena-concerts in most cases.
When she was going to embark on her last World Tour after nine years of break,.at an age of 70-years.
Then Tina refused “Go On Tour”,.if she did not get her previous sound-technician who had retired.
So the sound-technician broke his retirement and went “On Tour” with Tina.
I have left concerts because the sound was bad, so the sound-technician is very important.
/Peder🙂
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I wouldnt call the LS3/5a round earth. Yes, they were popular among round earthers but I ran them at the end of an all-olive system and they made perfect musical sense of music my Linn Sara’s (or Kans) just thrashed.
I still run BBC-speakers in the form of Graham LS5/9 which gives mean results on Linn’s tunedem-test. Alive and tuneful if you have the frontend and setup sorted. They are a bit ruthless on eurodisco. The LS5/8 may be even better but out of my financial range.
I still have a pair of SBL:s which do an amazing job with Phil Collins. But get seriously confused by Xenakis.
Now the above is the result in my system - I dont claim to have any generic answers. Just a music hobbyist trying to curate my own music-system for the music I listen to.
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A marvelous idea! @Beachcomber. Will it catch on? A resounding No! Why? Because we are humans, and humans are fascinated with representations (what). After we are convinced of What we should be listening to, then the fun part takes over: How do we go about assembling our dream system? When it’s all said and done, I Love this Forum! Despite the brutal attacks that attempt to penetrate my protective armour. Why? Because the vast majority of this beautiful Forum understands the Engaging Why:
“What are you listening to and why one might be interested?”
The Innocent Bystander, what an amazing idea.
Enjoy Your Music, The Why!
PS. I have a beautiful piece of your writing that displays your gift of stringing words. If I can find it!
Words are very powerful, I’m still learning how to use them appropriately!
I dislike and do not join in with mass hysteria, or blindly doing what some cheerleader says, following like sheep (no offence intended), chanting in a stadium (for football or music). That to me is not a musical experience but crowd psychology at work.
On the other hand good rock music played at visceral levels by a musical band with soaring guitars, maybe paired with keyboards, clothing physically pulsing with the snap of the drums, underpinned by bass that sends literal shivers through your body via direct air vibration is something else. Add anthemic songs sung by a charismatic singer, all through an exemplary PA system, and it can be a very engaging, energising and uplifting experience - whether 400 or 4000 in the audience!
From a completely different angle, live tragic opera, say Puccini or Verdi, to me beats just about anything for emotional engagement. Live full orchestra playing dramatic music. Live theatre. The sung human voice (several different ones). And a tragic tale. I had tried live opera previously with Bizet’s Carmen, but not got into it. But then went to see Puccini’s Turandot, and I was spellbound - and for the first time in my life since a young child 40 odd years earlier I had tears pouring down my face in public! (And I didn’t care.) So much emotion: total immersion through the multiple media. The ultimate in artistic expression reaching through all barriers to my inner soul… And no crowd mentality involved - indeed I was oblivious to there being anyone else in the audience.
I was hooked. Playing operas at home that I have seen live brings back all the emotion, the memory joining with the sound, becoming bigger than just the hifi playing - and the tears can’t help but roll. Now that is what hifi can do!
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We seem to have some parallels in our existence Mr Allante. Whilst I loved the LS3/5As, after I sold my active Isobariks I bought some Kans. Loved them and hated them depending on the day. Shuffled huge and heavy black and blue boxes into my lounge in alarming numbers trying to make the Kans “grow up”. Always loved the idea of a super amplifier driving little boxes.
I bought some n-sats for the study. Whilst they sound great, they’re still little boxes.
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That’s what I love about Music, a universal language that connects humans despite their differences. With that being said, most Baby boomers that belong to this forum have shared experiences and fond memories of the eighties:
Linn Spark
Linn Kans
Linn Sizmick~ Amazing Sub woofer
LK 280s
All a thing of the past!
Your Money May Be Long, But Life Is Short!
Enjoy The Bleeping Moment!
If you like it, I love it! 