Said with a grin, of course ... but the analogy is that when standing near the speakers that it is equivalent to hearing the drums at a volume as if they were 8 metres away. I'm well aware that the tone will not be as precisely correct as on good quality speakers, but the subjective impression is that the dynamic qualities are correct. Maybe an analogy is of listening to a good beginner's kit, as the real thing, vs. listening to the precise quality of the particular recorded kit ...
Frank
Frank, a pair of speakers - even the G1 with the cuteness factor thrown in - may be able to convince you that you are hearing drums at a volume as if they were 8m away. But this is a trained expectation because you want to believe that you are hearing a facsimile of "live". You believe that subjectively, the dynamic qualities (and even the tonal and harmonic qualities) are correct. This is a belief.
However, when I say that it cannot convince me that it is in fact truly "live", there is no way that I can have a drum kit 4m away (1m would hurt my ears too much), listen to it live, and then play back the recording and stand right next to the speaker, and not to be able to tell the difference. This is an objective statement.