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Crappy sounding "audiophile" LP's?

Hi,
Now that my system configuration is stable (for the time being, anyway) I've been dusting off music I haven't played in awhile, or in some cases, bought years ago but rarely or even never played. In the latter category are a group of audiophile LP's I bought in the mid to late 1980's, usually because TAS raved about them, they weren't that expensive back then, and I didn't know any better. :-)
So I finally listened to the Chesky LP reissue of "Scheherezade" by Reiner and the Chicago Symphony, and to the Chesky LP of a Sibelius Symphony (can't remember which one right now). These two, plus an LP on the Lyrita label of a composition by the British composer William Allwyn ("The Magic Island," I think) sound glorious, i.e., equal to the TAS hype. Great performances, too, of course.
I then dusted off a Sheffield Labs direct-to-disc LP called "Tower Of Power Direct." To my ears, it sounds lousy: bright, congealed, airless sound.
So I'm wondering if you folks have encountered "audiophile" recordings that didn't sound good to your ears, either.
rebbi

Showing 1 response by qdrone

qdrone
1,041 posts
 
To be honest people think a reviewer just throws the album on the platter and away we go.Sometimes you have to adjust the vta of your tonearm,sometimes the azimuth angle of the cartridge to get things just right. You have albums in your collection that you think sound great but by god if you have a turntable that you can make adjustments then your only scratching the surface.
I remember someone coming on here saying their copy of MCA heavy vinyl pressing of Who's Next sucked,said Daltry sounded like he was singing in the basement. I remember telling the poster to adjust the VTA to take into the increased thickness of the vinyl and Bam, Daltry was in the hallway,front and center.
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