Christmas presents....or presence?

[Puffin]

There have been a few threads recently on the ability of a system to create (subjectively) either what one believes to be the intention of the creator of any particular piece of music, or to provide a "live" performance.

It struck me today after fiddling (yes.... again:D) that my system really does have presence.

Presence is defined as :-

The state or fact of being present; current existence or occurrence

Any views on this?

[Firebottle]

I think it's very much dependent on the intention and skill of the producer with recorded music.
Some recordings have it in spades, with some it's sadly lacking.

:cool: Alan

[daytona600]

just playing joni mitchell blue on vinyl with 6watts of 2a3 on my LS3/5a
presence oh yes

[Floyddroid]

An interesting subject indeed. I think it is dependant on musical genre and the way in which that genre has been recorded or where and how it was played live. A jazz quartet in Ronnie Scott's, Pink floyd with a bazillion watts of amplification at Earles Court, The London Philharmonic at the Albert Hall or a folk singer in a pub etc etc etc................

Many enthusiast voice their systems to replicate their favourite genre to as live sound as possible, others prefer to have an all round sound quality that encapulates the best of most genre. I find that some fellow audiophiles trade presence for seat of the pants excitement and scale, others prefer the "in the room" experience. Some lucky blighters manage to pull off both. There are far too many anomilies to consider in the home, ie scale, room size, componants and all manner of things. To recreate a band on stage with huge speaker stacks planted throughout the auditorium or a full orchestra playing in an elaborate hall is very difficult to do in the confines of the average British front room/lounge,dining room, loft. far easier are small scale recordings such as stringed quartet, vocal, jazz or solo instrument. I do agree though, when presence is achieved via a good hi-fi it's a special moment.

I treat my Hi-fi as a musical conduit which allows me to listen to all the music and watch concerts that i am unable to attend due to work commitments or logistics. Does it convay presence? yes it does from time to time. With the right recording at the correct volume in the right mood.....
There is more to Hi-fi than you think. good though innit?:rolleyes:

[Reffc]

Dependant upon kit, room acoustics AND the recording. No one thing on it's own leads to presence.

Way too many recordings do not have it. Most are "engineered" and there's no rulebook of what he outcome should be but there are guidelines for standards (ie Red Book for CDs...which is usually ignored or so it seems);

Rooms can be treated but are either suited to the speakers or not (ie you'll get the best from them or not);

The quality of the kit matters.

Finally everyone's hearing is different and whilst some might get all teary eyed about the finer nuances they're picking up, others can't hear them or simply look for other things.

For me, the most important thing is that kit, room and the recording should (ideally) come together and provide an emotional connection between listener and music. Nothing else matters IMHO long term since anyone chasing the ultimate set up is likely to always be chasing the ultimate set up and will lose their way and become unable to enjoy listening to anything. The music has to come first.

As for the definition of presence given in the OP, it applies sometimes and is irrelevant other times depending on who/where for the recording.

I have been to many live performances (classical, Folk and Rock) and in many cases left annoyed by the terrible acoustics but drawn to the emotional aspect of being there to experience the event. Had you recreated that in your listening room you would probably have sold your kit or binned the recording. Hence "presence" is over-hyped IMHO.