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 4 responses by russ69

The idea is to play the music you like. Tune your system so that the trash albums sound acceptable. In the Led Zip example, you are going to have to turn it UP! Led Zep I and II can crank but it wont ever sound like a top shelf record. 
I don't know your budget but Parasound A21+ or Parasound JC1s are the direction you want to take. Match that with a good tube preamp. Cary, Conrad Johnson, perhaps an ARC. This will get you where you want to be. 
"...just can’t get early exposure to electrostatics out of our mind, can we..."

Maggies are planner magnetic or quasi ribbon if you prefer, not electrostatic. The more expensive models have ribbon tweeters. .
Daydream, I'm a big Maggie fan and love the 3.6/3.7s. But I'm not sure if that would be the right speaker for you. You'll have to pull them out 6 feet into the room and they will need lots of power, I'm thinking 250wpc minimum. You'll also want to add a subwoofer for some added weight. I can't recommend a speaker for you, I know what I like, but in your case and your desire to listen to older stuff, I'm thinking something efficient and a nice tube amp. Good luck with your shopping.