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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
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,865 posts
 
Protection copy of what master ? in the case of early Zep most likely the mastering for cutting a lacquer with the goal of being able to play on the average turntable of the day and maybe on a Delco AM/FM car radio of the day, low low bar for bass reproduction indeed. Anybody remember a Delco tweeter in the 70’s ? ah hem…. no.
Not really practical to build much of a music collection w legit or bootleg copies of protection tapes, i have two half track machines, ask me how i know. 



tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,865 posts
 
…and part of my patronage to a particular artist and recording studio is near yearly sponsorship of the LP version of the album they put out. As a consequence, I am quite familiar w the high rez file, the half track 15 ips master and what comes off the LP ( from a super experienced LA based mastering engineer )…. they are night and day different…

fun
m2team00
11 posts
 
To get the best recorded Led Zeppelin sound, get the Celebration Day Blu-ray that includes 2 cds of the same performance. You have not heard Led Zeppelin sound like this!
dwiphefl1128
8 posts
 
I agree with Stuartk619. I have combined a circa 1995 Bryston 3B amp with a rare New York Audio Minuet in A hybrid tube preamp. The reason I did this is to get the best of both worlds. The Bryston of that time-period is an awesome power amp, but can be a little "bright". The New York Audio Minuet in A  tamed down the brightness without any apparent degradation in musicality. The Minuet in A is a legend...it is still considered a top-shelf preamp after all these years, But they are hard to find as most owners do not want to part with them. But you probably find one in great condition for $800 or so. I am a real fan of hybrid tube preamps combined with high-end solid state amps. A match made in heaven. But there seems to be lot more hybrid tube preamps on the market now so you have other choices, But for me, I'm sticking with Minuet in A.
daydream816 OP
38 posts
 
Thank you everyone for the huge amount of comments. This was my first real reach out and everyone has been so helpful.i learned a ton!  I am once again going to filter through the comments. So appreciate each one of you!
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