Of course not, what you need is model the way your ear handles sound coming from various locations then model this and reproduce it. It's like VR, but for your ears. That's how ASMR effectively works. If you want full immersion you can add head tracking so that the sound "rotates" around you when you move your head. I know that Apple offers that with their latest headphones.

Admittedly in order to do this you need to have post-processing specific for every person since we don't process sound exactly the same depending on our physiology. I know that Sony attempted something like that with its "3D audio". I think it's a bit of a gimmick myself, but it's technically doable.

> Of course not [you just need individual head related transfer functions for everyone and a fast DSP]

I agree that it is probably possible in theory, but aren't we talking about actual equipment and recordings that people can buy?

You can buy it; the keyword is 'binaural' recording/headphones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording

Except this is a long way yet from what the GP was describing, although it is an attempt in that direction.

What if you only want to replicate the sound of an orchestra as heard by an observer at a specified point? Why wouldn't two microphones be sufficient? That's how it's perceived, after all.

You can get really nice sound that way, but to get the full effect you need to take into account the shape of the head and ears of the listener. After all, these are important factors that help us place sound in space.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function

Your ears are highly directional devices and an orchestra in a concert hall creates a highly complex soundscape that is impossible to replicate with 2 channels. Location awareness (i.e. 2 mics where your ears are) is just a small part of the problem.

So it sounds like the experience can be fully captured with two microphones mounted in the ears of an acoustic dummy head, as long as you're willing to accept a single position and orientation for the observer. Personally, that would be more than good enough fidelity.

I suppose then you would need to have the transfer function of that specific observer's head and ears at that specific point. Perhaps some time in the future there will be personalization of the transfer function so that you can hear the sounds as you would hear it at that spot.