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On 2011-05-01 said:
big snip
Consider this: I've heard Yo Yo Ma and Isaac Stern in a 3,000 seat
venue in Portland, Oregon; Leontyne Price at Symphony Hall in
Boston (probably also a 3000
seat house), and several other top solo/duo/trio players in
similar-sized venues.
These were absolutely spell-binding performances that I'll remember
vividly for the
rest of my life. No PA.
snip

But midway back in the halls, peaks probably hit 80-84 dB for Ms.
Price; 75-78 for
Mr. Stern. A side point here is that IMO people have simply been
overly conditioned
to hearing everything going through transducers and electronics
when they don't need
to be -- and the sense of what true acoustic music can be has
been/is getting lost.


WOuld agree, and also would note that for that classical
performance, the audience sat, and actually "listened" to
the performance. At the popular music event, often the
folks will be coming to and fro with cold beers and other
refreshments, etc. etc.

THese folks at classical and many jazz venues will sit
quietly listening, applaud and make noise when appropriate,
etc.

One side note about that 3000 seat hall in Portland. I also heard
Nickel Creek in
that house. Sonically passible but still annoying PA sound for most
of the show,
but in the 3rd encore, Chris Thile asked that the PA be shut down,
and invited the
remaining audience (probably 500-700 of us) to come down toward the
stage.
I got a little a little closer, but not much. Again, spell-binding;
it was jaw dropping to hear those players with those instruments.
There was no "PA veil" to
bleed off some of the magic.
You can argue that good performances transcend all, but that's
perhaps saying that
good performances transcend bad PA vs. good PA.
But *removing* PA entirely takes you to a whole new place with
players of this level.

INdeed, and the folks there who endeavored to moe a bit
closer and actually pay attention when they learned the
group asked for the pa to be killed actually did just that
then.

Culturally people are just growing more accustomed to the
din and hubbub. tHeir phones vibrate buzz and play tunes,
etc. THe band played one or two tunes during that no pa
encore, so maybe folks ignored the vibrating phone etc.


But, I"m with you and Scott D. on this one.

Regards,





Richard webb,

replace anything before at with elspider
ON site audio in the southland: see www.gatasound.com