Sorry to disagree but I went to the opening of the NY Phil last week to see The Pines of Rome and it reminded me that speakers will never even come close to reproducing the electricity in the air when an orchestra plays live.
I am sure that system sounds AMAZING, though. I am only saying that it is not the same as real people playing live.
There's
zero need to be sorry. What you wrote is completely fair.
So let me amend what I wrote with this:
The laws of physics apply. You will never be able to perfectly reproduce an entire orchestra and the size and acoustics of a hall in your living room, not for 20k bucks or half a million.
But you can get surprisingly close if you know what to look out for, and which mistakes to avoid. (Subs and ported speakers, for example, are great for pop and rock, but counterproductive for acoustic music, jazz, and classical.)
Is the system I described able to
perfectly reproduce a philharmonic orchestra and its hall?
No. That's why I carefully chose my words when I said that "it'll get you a pretty darn decent approximation" of one.
If it's "perfect" you're after, nothing will ever beat buying a ticket. Which, incidentally, is also of course the preferred approach to support the performers and the art form itself.
But it comes surprisingly close based on my own sensibilities, and it's
more than enough for the girls I go out with.