2. music
  3. 168966-162547

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 6 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,984 posts
 
@tomic601 you have those Quad, Vandersteen and mbl?   Wow.   You have hit the jackpot!   Those mbl are a whole different thing.  Best sound I ever heard was mbl set up really well in a customized showroom.  I took notes on how they did that if interested. 
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,984 posts
 
+1. @jond involvement is the thing. 
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,984 posts
 
A good system let’s you hear what is in the recording. A lesser system won’t. It’s not always prettty but for me its almost always interesting to learn how all recordings are made differently and no two sound exactly the same.
To take this to extremes I digitize and stream old 78s on my system and even those are a revelation though nobody would claim these are good recordings by modern standards. On some there is almost as much surface noise as music. But the music is there, it’s very old and it’s very interesting as a result.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,984 posts
 
Yes so many choices it can all be very confusing. You came to a good place here though to get a good sampling of what is possible. Maybe others here who live not far from you might offer to let you hear their stuff if you message them including myself. Also there are audio shows starting to go again now it seems and those are one of the best ways to get a wide sampling of what is possible in a short period of time.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,984 posts
 
It’s true most Led Zeppelin is made to be played loud and a system needs to be able to do that clearly without distorting/clipping/fatigue  to deliver the intended effect best. A good example of where size and clean power matters. It takes a very good system to do that well in most save perhaps very small rooms. Matching components including speakers to room is key. All the things that audiophiles fret about matter even in the case of maximizing Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin is all about the power and energy of the music. The exact opposite say of perhaps a string quartet. Unfortunately I must point out that though Magnepans are wonderful speakers rock and pop music that excels based on power and dynamics like Led Zeppelin are not their forte and why I eventually parted with mine though I would still like to have a small pair around to use when the whim occurs.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,984 posts
 
Of course people listen to all kinds of recordings good and not so good. A good hifi just let’s you hear whatever is there better. Including differences in remasters of those recordings popular enough to warrant remastering. A good hifi will let you hear differences in various Led Zeppelin releases mastered in different ways as well. If you like the music you should like it even better on a good hifi. Unless the details don’t matter to you and any version is then a good one no matter what it is heard on.
More to discover