Done something wrong? Not at all!
What have you upgraded recently?
It seems likely that your changes have resulted in a more revealing combination of equipment which sharply illustrates deficiencies in production, miking, mixing techniques, and possibly, listening room acoustics.
Recently I upgraded my primary source to digital streaming, my amplification to a newish brand integrated amp with DAC onboard that has been highly praised for its sound quality, and finally, my speakers to Spatial Audio M5 Sapphires.
The changes were done one at a time with one or more weeks between each piece being added. This allowed a fairly long period to discern the difference in sound quality that each swap made.
To be brief, upgrading the amp and then the source while using my old speakers moved me to tears when listening to choral and classical music that I have known (and performed) for decades.
Adding the M5 Sapphires Increased my pleasure in the classical and choral recordings BUT a surprising number of rock, c&w, jazz and folk recordings became decidedly LESS SATISFYING TO LISTEN TO.
The problem? They sounded ‘synthetic’! Doubled voice tracks with added reverb and peaked up frequency balance were now much more obvious. Individual tracks with distortion added stood out clearly with the much more transparent M5Sapphires.
I’ve rambled on too long so I’ll close by saying that one of the costs of upgrading to ever better, more revealing gear might well be diminished satisfaction from some recordings in your collection.
What have you upgraded recently?
It seems likely that your changes have resulted in a more revealing combination of equipment which sharply illustrates deficiencies in production, miking, mixing techniques, and possibly, listening room acoustics.
Recently I upgraded my primary source to digital streaming, my amplification to a newish brand integrated amp with DAC onboard that has been highly praised for its sound quality, and finally, my speakers to Spatial Audio M5 Sapphires.
The changes were done one at a time with one or more weeks between each piece being added. This allowed a fairly long period to discern the difference in sound quality that each swap made.
To be brief, upgrading the amp and then the source while using my old speakers moved me to tears when listening to choral and classical music that I have known (and performed) for decades.
Adding the M5 Sapphires Increased my pleasure in the classical and choral recordings BUT a surprising number of rock, c&w, jazz and folk recordings became decidedly LESS SATISFYING TO LISTEN TO.
The problem? They sounded ‘synthetic’! Doubled voice tracks with added reverb and peaked up frequency balance were now much more obvious. Individual tracks with distortion added stood out clearly with the much more transparent M5Sapphires.
I’ve rambled on too long so I’ll close by saying that one of the costs of upgrading to ever better, more revealing gear might well be diminished satisfaction from some recordings in your collection.