I attended a funeral today and heard an unaplified trumpet playing and it got me thinking again about live versus Hi-Fi sound...

I've long wondered if many of us audiophiles are really chasing the Holy Grail Live Experience as we often claim....

Can we achieve a live sound if some of our HiFi components surpass the live sound in specific areas?

For example, a great deal of focus is placed on pin point imaging and soundstages in Hi-Fi, yet in live performances many of us have found that no such precision exists...

Also, we focus on being able to hear every last drop of detail... With my headphones I can just about hear sweat running down the singer's nose... but in a live performance, there is no way I'd heard anywhere near that level of detail, unless the performer was seranading me with their lips to my ear....

So if we overshoot the margin in some areas can we really achieve a live sound and is that actually even our aim?

So back to the trumpet: the sound was harsh and bright... which I found interesting considering how many times I hear audiophiles wax lyrically about the virtues of warm gear that never makes any recordings sound harsh... So how can I reproduce live sound with gear that makes everything listenable and/or sweet, considering that many live instruments and sounds are harsh and bright?

Have we moved so far away from the goal of reproducing the live event, that we now focus totally on Hi-Fi terms like prat, soundstage and detail?