I guess 'real' is in the ears of the beholder.
I used to record almost everyone I did live gigs for on the night.
Then I'd play it back through the same sound system that I used on the night or a facsimile of, at home.
With a bit of tweaking I could get it to sound pretty damn good. It was 'real' enough. You'd swear the band was back on stage.
But then again, systems aren't cheap, but you sure would get a lot more bang for your $150K.
You just need really big rooms to set it all up....