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Bad recordings and high end audio

Hello. Have decided that the kids are out of the house and I can dedicate some space and money to my long ignored hobby. What is different now is there are so few audio stores. I firmly believe in listening to products so thus I start this great new chapter of my life. The first 2 stores I went to the people were very patient with me and I listened to a ton of combinations. They asked me did I want to hear anything else and I said  yes, ummm,.. how about Led Zeppelin? I received the same response from both stores which was “all Led Zeppelin recordings are horrible” except for this one version of Led Zeppelin 2…blah blah. So I said what happens if I am at home and i have a desire to play Led Zeppelin or another perceived poor recording? They did not have an answer for me nor did they play Led Zeppelin lol . I ended up ordering a pair of Magnepan 3.7i’s from a different store. 13 weeks until I get them, ouch. I am going to guess that people do listen to poor recordings on great systems because you just want to hear a particular album, right? Or am I missing something? Just looking for a bit of insight. Yes, I know they want it to sound the best so I will buy it but is that the only motivation. Or maybe they hate Led Zeppelin, lol.
daydream816

Showing 3 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
7,857 posts
 
OP  I am 69. When I was about your age I upgraded my system. In part because it was time and I didn’t think I would be able to afford upgrades in retirement. I was really happy that I did because I immediately began enjoying my system at a much higher level than ever before. Then I retired and after a couple years I upgraded my headphone system to 300b tubes and realized my main system was much too sterile. Also, in the mean time I had been managing my money in retirement  and realized I could afford to upgrade. I doubled the investment in my system. Wow, I can’t tell you how gratifying the jump in performance has been. Also, its value has now grown to investment level. My audio guy is instructed if I die soon to sell it all, take a cut, and give the rest to my partner… which should be a substantial amount of money. At some point your system is actually worth money and you can enjoy your investment.
ghdprentice
7,857 posts
 
I pulled up a copy of Stairway to Heaven from Qobuz, it is remastered an 24bit/96khz. Sounds very good. But then I don’t have a ear bleeding kind of system.

Someone recommended a Pass amp. I think that would be a great choice, a pass x350.x would give the Maggie’s the most punch you are going to get from them. Couple that with the best Audio Research tube preamp and you would have the punch, detail and musicality of a great system. Assuming you have good sources of course. I owned a Pass x350 for over ten years with a ARC preamp and ribbon speakers. I have auditioned Maggie’s many times set up per my request. They sounded spectacular… just can’t get early exposure to electrostatics out of our mind, can we.
ghdprentice
7,857 posts
 
Choosing electronic components are key in enjoying your speakers. For the better part of the last fifty years I have had very revealing planar speakers and have always needed to be cautious of pairing with overly revealing components and making a lot of recordings sound bad… yes, easy to do with planars. I would recommend shying away from components with the words “very revealing”, or “extremely detailed”. A tube preamp… like a new or used Audio Research, Conrad Johnson, VAC… etc… whether individual or integrated would be very high end and not harsh. 

I have faced this repeatedly and always needed to be a step back from most revealing or harshness and poor recordings will take over. The Led Zeplin vinyl is good. I have original and audiophile pressings. I’ll listen to the streaming versions later today and see what I think of them. You can click on my user I’d to see my systems… and hence my inclination,
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