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conflict between accuracy and impressive

Posted by unclestu on May 18, 2012 at 17:29:30:
I believe a truly neutral system will reveal the microphone set up and the mixing. The issue is how does a listener, isolated from the actual recording event, determine that set up.
There only a few recordings which can give the listener access to that information. Kavi Alexander's recordings of the Philadelphia is well documented, as are his recordings for the Audio Quest CD's. In fact on some, like Tuxedo Cowboy, there are photos of the microphone set up ( single stereo mike). The Decca classical recordings are also well documented: the famous Decca "Tree" with outriggers. There are many photos available with a little research (including a French book on Ansermet with great photos of Orchestra de la Suisse Romane in their hall).
I am lucky in that I met a musician who played on some of the Eastman Wind Ensemble recordings on Mercury. However, you can also find photos of the recording set up in the Mercury Civil War sets ( interesting also because of the use of period over the shoulder horns, the brass face backwards in the hall and the conductor is also at the back of the hall: the woodwinds, facing forward, had to use automotive rear view mirrors to see him). Simple set up: three mikes and there is no gain riding on the mixing board as other recording engineers used ( Decca especially). All Mercs were recorded this way, apparently.
Still, most orchestral recordings will give a perspective of the conductor and NOT a listener in the hall. A quick glimpse of the microphone techniques shows them close to the ensemble and fairly elevated, almost above the conductor, where no normal listener ever has access to. When multimiked, as in Becca's Phase Four recordings, it sounds like you're in the middle of the orchestra: spectacular, but hardly realistic.
Remember that Sheffield Labs made a direct to disc recording with the mikes set up in the sitting area of the audience. It was universally panned, so much so that Doug Sax quit recording direct to discs, claiming that the "audiophile" clamor for realism was mere words.
To capture the real soundstage, transducers need to be both time and phase aligned. Very few are, and that is true no matter what price range you examine.
Pop recordings are basically reduced to psycho acoustical tricks these days. You can find older recordings with superb imaging, however. Joan Baez Live, has a three dimensionality which is rather stunning although it is quite obvious that the mike feed for the guitar and voice are different. You can hear the image shift as she shifts the weight on her feet.The same holds true for early Peter, Paul and Mary: simpler vocal parts and instrumentation are not quite as demanding. The justly praised Belafonte at Carnegie Hall also captures the live experience very well although obviously multimiked and from the stage perspective. The Audio Fidelity recording of Louis Armstrong playing the St. James Infirmary (reissued on audiophile vinyl) is superb and the album back cover has an accurate description of the recording set up including the Ampex 300 tape deck used). You can hear the movement of the position of Armstrong as he shifts from playing his horn and singing.
You can find even modern recordings with superb dimensionality: the Indigo Girls Live playing All Along the Watchtower is great, although the perspective is like you are on stage, not in the audience.
It is difficult to achieve real three dimensionality, but once achieved, the results can be truly stunning. You need to pay careful attention to the smallest details, work on the major issues, with are generally the transducers. It truly pains me to look at Stereophile's speaker test results because if such results were posted for a piece of electronics, they would be laughed out of existence.

Stu