Why is recording studio the best sound?

Bayreuth festspielhaus is the best sound I’ve heard.

Martin Graham has come closest to having one at home that I’m aware of.

Still a bit of work to do but it already sounds pretty good.

I agree, both have wonderful acoustics, I go to Longborough every year, looking forward to Das Rheingold and Don Giovanni next year and finally got to Parsifal at Bayreuth in August.

Symphony Hall in Birmingham is pretty good as well, this is what I want my hifi to sound like!

Consciousmess posted:

This audio nirvana we’re all trying to achieve cannot be better than the true source, and that’s the literal instrument recording in the studio, with super high end professional ADC       and DACs.

So why can’t audiophiles with the cash buy these for playback - matching original recording quality?

Because they would need to listen to raw, unprocessed and unmastered tracks. And those are simply not available to general public.

And it’s not just DACs - it’s the studio compressors, power amps, near-field monitors etc etc.

Better to go a listen to a band in a rehearsal studio - that’s the raw sound of the music (in case of a rock band). 

Years ago I had Tri amp Isobariks and could access a Revox B77 and some high end microphones. In the same room as the hifi we had a piano and my wife played reasonable classical piano. So....

The recorded sound of the piano was stunning, in that the immediacy and percussive impact grabbed you. By this I mean in comparison to playing a record.  PRaT on steroids. But not compared to the real thing. Also the balance was all over the place. Overall it was light years away from the sound of the actual piano in the same room. I had some experience with studio recording, and how to mike piano both for on stage and studio work. Sadly the raw tapes were too jagged to really enjoy, even though the "reality" factor was pretty good. And the playback system was woefully inadequate to reproduce the true SPLs and attack of a piano.

I have also borrowed good studio monitors at home to try. There are some great insights to be gained from using these but my view is that like the raw recordings it was too rough a presentation for enjoying the music. I am not hung up on a flat frequency response, (anyone who loves Kans and SBLs is generally not chasing this), but I have limits. But the SPLs you can achieve with some decent efficient monitors shows one aspect ot what you lose with most domestic hifi.

There are a multitude of other factors as to why raw recordings are hard going. The very rare "direct" recording that works shows the reasons for chasing this experience but necessity dictates a whole lot of adjustment in the studio is needed. Also there is a different paradigm for home reproduction. You listen over and over to the same piece. You absorb more/differently.

Have you seen the size and complexity of some of those mixing/mastering suites.  I'm not sure I'd want to fiddle with one of those every time I wanted to listen to something.

I had an interesting conversation with Touraj on Saturday where he was talking about studios. He said that for LPs the studios tend to use decks that are ruthlessly analytical so that they can listen for defects, and a couple of studios have recently added Vertere decks so that they can listen for the musical aspects.

Nothing beats live, if it's well played and well mixed. Muse are superb at  this in big venues. Large stadiums which are not designed ofr acoustics are rubbish. Try a good folk festival, or learn to play an instrument yourself for optimum faithfulness.

Get yourself the same types of speakers and amps used for main monitoring and you may find yourself pretty close - e.g big ATCs, pro range PMCs (or their SE domestic styled versions) - in both cases the active versions, or triamped with a bank of big Brystons, Krells etc. Their emphasis is on accyracy, neutrality and clarity, minimising any softening, blurring, distorting, emphasis etc - which some interpret as ruthless, unforgiving or analytical.

Also don't forget the well treated [acoustically] room.  Its amazing what results you can get when you take the room out of the equation , then add a big pair of PMCs. Heaven !