I am on holiday in Florida - taking the kids to the theme parks.
Yesterday we were going to Animal Kingdom, to do the new Avatar ride (the 2 hour wait was worth it!) and see the light show afterwards. Anyway, a thunder storm interrupted us; so rather than drive in the rain, I sat on the balcony watching the approaching storm, and waiting for it to pass. I thought I would spend half an hour relaxing and listening to it.
It was a cracker of a storm; huge lightning strikes, and aural explosions as the thunder cracked.
But the sound was incredible - and the placement accuracy that human hearing and perception is simply immense. As the thunder cracked, you could hear exactly where the thunder originated, as it rippled and moved through the sky - you could perceive exactly where it was coming from to simply extraordinary accuracy - height and depth. Also, each thunder crack sounded completely different, with remarkable low frequency pitch and texture. Sat on the balcony of the seventh floor one can hear pool sounds, the hotel's music system, and place them to pinpoint accuracy; then this usual ambient sound was punctuated by the huge dynamics of the thunder, with a simply immense soundstage extending for many miles.
I was left with two feelings; on the one hand thinking that considerable progress has been made in reproduced sound - but that there is still a long way to go, to mach the visceral beauty and tangibility of live unamplified sound.
And I will need to come back to Florida to record this with the new ADC....