Does Heavy Metal music benefit from a high end audio system?
Not to dig at the genre although I’m not a fan, does Heavy Metal music benefit from an higher resolution systems? I’m not talking about comparing to a cheap box store system, rather, would one benefit moving from an audiophile quality $5-10k to a $100k+system?
@pwdmark I think it takes a certain personality trait to prefer metal (same as with any genre), but I think Tool is one of those transition bands that people can dip their toes in to find out. They live on the border of hard rock and metal, their albums have some of the best sound quality of any hard rock/metal (but are sometimes a little "weird") and they are not overwhelming (too fast).
I'm not a huge "alternative" fan, but I like Erra. They immediately reminded me of two albums in my library, although these albums lean more toward heavy than as alternative as Erra. They are
Divinity - The Singularity (try song, Lay In The Bed You Made for that alternative flavor) and Beyond The Fall - Antibody (mostly because of the similar vocals).
Like you, I wanted more complexity, but my "power inclination" always drives me to crave simple chugging. So I usually wind up liking a combination of the two. Especially complex songs with a brutally heavy breakdown. I play guitar (and some bass), so I understand how to rate the difficulty. I know a lot of people think metal is a lot of noise and screaming, but they are monumentally mistaken. I can play a lot of Van Halen, but I can't come anywhere close to the rhythm speed and tightness of Warfect's Fredrik Wester on the songs Drone Wars or Inflammatory, which BTW is on what I consider the best thrash album since the late 80's, Exoneration Denied.
Great post! I am a R&R lifer. Also a musician until I was 35. I purchased Electric Ladyland the day it was released, same with his other albums. Same with Blue Cheer, all Zep, Black Sabbath... Like many of you. The difference is although I still purchase all those remasters. But I kept looking forward. I too ended up (like a drug addict) to want more, deeper, more complex, challenging music. Many have been mentioned here for the daring.... I offer the 2019 Grammy winning song for Best Metal Performance..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D2R69gVyZ0
I grew up at the perfect age, of the beginning of the NWOBHM music
My first album was Black Sabbath’s Paranoid ... WHEN IT WAS A NEW RELEASE (facepalm/smh). Talk about feeling old. But as fits my personality type, I never got stuck on the music of my late teens like most people. I kept progressing up until today while retaining my enjoyment of some of the older stuff.
Through the late 70’s we only considered two bands "heavy metal." Black Sabbath and Judas Priest (post-Rocka Rolla). I thought the 1970 song Jury by Trapeze came close. I played the heck out of that album (Medusa) in 1973-4.
There was nothing I considered metal again until ’81 with Iron Maiden’s Killers, which I didn’t like. I thought it was too fast. My how times have changed. Some might include Anvil in ’81. The real start of the proliferation of metal began in ’82 when I heard Witchfinder General and Angel Witch. ’83 kicked it off with a vengeance with Slayer, Metallica and Mercyful Fate. And ’84 was amazing. The period between ’84-88 was loaded with phenomenal metal. There were still good releases from ’88-92, but you could feel that something had changed. There was a short period where groove metal appeared. Then we had a dry spell from ’92-04. Thrash bands went Nu-metal, and after death metal band Entombed woke everyone up in ’90, with a few exceptions death metal hadn’t quite found its form yet, and after the brilliant ’87 release of Candlemass’ Nightfall, doom metal fizzled. In 2004, my interest peaked again when some of the death metal and metal-core bands started to release some decent music, like Killswitch Engage’s The End of Heartache, Cataract’s With Triumph Comes Loss, Full Blown Chaos’ Wake The Demons and Kataklysm’s Serenity In Fire.
Metal is now this humungous category with a huge number of genres that are indecipherable except to hardcore metal-heads. Progressive metal and technical death metal seems to draw some of the best musicians in the world, mainly because they’re the only ones who are capable of playing some of that stuff (for example Dream Theater). There are thousands of releases every year, most of them pure crap, but a few gems seem to pop up every year. And some genres go downhill while others suddenly become relevant again. For example, around 2013 death metal started to go dissonant, while doom metal made a resurgence with quality releases. A couple, Trees of Eternity’s Hour of the Nightingale and Draconian’s Sovran are stunningly brilliant.
BTW articdeth, I don’t think metalarchives.com includes all metal. For some reason they refuse to recognize hardcore as metal. I can see if the band sounds derived from The Ramones, Bad Religion or Sex Pistols, but I think any metal-head who doesn’t listen to Nail’s Suum Cuique or Wide Open Wound because they don’t come across Nail in metalarchives has possibly missed out on two of the heaviest metal riffs of all time. Born From Pain’s brutally heavy Sands of Time is also missing. And they regularly mislabel the genres, such as listing The Destro as "Death/Groove" when they are really "Groove/Hardcore" with nary a blast beat, growl or tremolo picking to be found. Great band BTW.
Wow, The Misunderstood! Have the lost Acetates cd.sound quality is as suspected, hollow, what seems like a bad transfer, similar to my 4 cd Pat travers set my the “majestic rock” label. Horrible, glad I popped for all the Japanese mini lp reissues few years back, night and day difference,…….anyway back….to.. Their full on guitar solos, when they do them, are pretty ear shattering, NOT in a bad way, it’s like giving a guitar great 20 beers, a couple microdots, and some Jameson chasers. All over the place, with little regard for rhythm or keeping the beat. This is a GOOD THING! they never really had much of a career, lots of 7”s’ I remember children of the sun, in 80, I thought it was a remake by bill Thorpe, no different all together, the Thorpe one is produced better, and makes sense, the Misunderstood one is just, in your face, and a psychedelic (maybe) or the guitar freak, took small lessons from Pete Townsend ( ?? )
Going to dig through some boxes to find one cd now,. Wow, they were ahead of their time from the earlier sound. They went full on rip, on some songs.not all, if you’ve not heard them, or want to, stay away from “the lost acetates” cd, sq is live from a thin walled aluminum trash can, (on my system anyway)
man, I love it when gems like this are unearthed!…….UNEARTHED,…..WOW, just remembered the Y&T unearthed CDs, if your a fan check them out. Some very good stuff on them, Meniketti is a beast. thank you.
not that familiar with them, the cd didn’t get much play at all, will investigate my cd further this weekend! And give a chance and full listen ,…sober at first, then after a few Negro Modelo beers.
It’s always fun to read a post about the beginnings of heavy metal and nobody even mentions The Misunderstood. I was 12 when I stopped listening to Blue Cheer. Dig around a little fellas. We used to have to do this through mail order.
Back to the main topic, I think both metal and punk can sound better if the source is better - problem is the majority of music produced in these genres didn’t focus heavily on good production and their listeners at the time didn’t have the equipment to know better. Even worse is garage music. I love me some early sixties garage bands - but my system makes them sound like they are broadcasting from inside the electrical outlet between my speakers.
Learned the hard way, never wear a metal shirt to a punk show. Took crap all night, pushed down, in the end, bought some arrogant dics a couple beers, were still in contact after 20+ years. We are all the outcasts, unwanted, long haired, shaved, brothers/sisters. unite!
as far as the OP question, yes and no. as mentioned here, many early bands had terrible producers, thin bass, tinny treble, try jamming Bathory- blood, fire, death or slayer - reign in blood in your car stereo LOUD, its an onslaught (namedrop!!) to the ears.
anyway, yes a good system will make a metal album sound amazing or bad, depending on the producer, and engineer. some early cd editions are so bass thin, its really bad, some sound really darn good, a great album, is kill em all, yeah poptallicas initial debut, the bass is very tight, guitars crunchy, a great album played loud. peace sells is also great! metal church's "the dark" is amazing on LP or CD!! many of the early NWOBHM stuff is also somewhat thin, Samson has some great early stuff, as does satan jokers, kreator, accept, Riot is great, annihilator still has great production, lets not mention the travesty of Malmsteen producing all his great albums in a what seems FLAT EQ, drums are hollow, they are just all the same, almost uninvolving, if any of you remember the scorpions remasters of years back, i bought 3 of the Japanese versions with extra tracks, oh my god,......the first 10 seconds i was going to the next song, i think i picked up tokyo tapes, taken by force, and blackout,....the treble/high end is SOOO in your face, they are UNLISTENABLE, if you have a extremely warm speaker, etc, you may like them, but even my warm RC-70's are too bright, and these 3 cds are THE ONLY ONES to do this.
there i go rambling again.
i love talking rock/metal! i can talk metal all the time, hangout have a few cold ones, play some rare rock/metal, and just chat about bands, members, LP, CD, versions, artwork (which i miss from the LP recorded)
if you disagree with me, cool, please reply, would love to bs with any metalhead, or metalhead in the making! remember, we are a family of outcasts (namedrop) i hung out with Todd from The Outcasts for many years, great dude! and Pete Monstswillo from Zoetrope, we worked at jones inter cable for a while as well. good guy as well.
met thousands of band/members over the years, all pretty good guys/gals. Jo Bench from bolthrower is hotter in person for sure! so is Sabina Classen from Holy Moses (yum) Sabina i believe is one of the very first female singers to sing metal on the 1982 demo "satans angel" she still sings, and is still friendly and approachable! Kate De Lombaert from the mighty "Acid" another founding metal female vocalist. lest not forget The Runaways also !!
see, rock/metal, can go on for hours just, love chatting rock/metal!
"good evening, or Hello (city name)' We are Motorhead,...and we play rock and roll"
its fast, loud, but it is rock and roll.
with a very few exceptions, %94 of bands listed here are NOT metal.
My records sound sometimes, better than the cds, The REAL "INCUBUS" serpent temptation, not the mainstream pop tripe band, who think they are metal, they are not, they are a pop/rock band.
serpent temptation has 2 versions, the original LP, and the remixed CD version,... with new singer I think, basslines, guitar, a reworked album.
the Steamhammer version of Sodom - Obsessed by cruelty is a completely different version that the cd release, a whole different animal.
Led Zeppelin, Cream, Uriah Heep, Mountain, Blue cheer, etc etc, are rock and roll bands. They may have a few faster parts, that is rock and roll.
I grew up at the perfect age, of the beginning of the NWOBHM music, and the birth of rock/metal/punk crossover music. The metalhead became faster listening to the punk bands, and same with the punk bands, who were influenced by many early metal bands.
arguably the very first NWOBHM band which was labeled as such is a personal fav of mine, Paul Samson, he broke the mold by which many other bands followed, including Venom, Budgie, raven, tank, jaguar, saxon (even the now pop band def leppard) white spirit, witchfynde, and a slew of other originators of metal.
the early punk GBH, ramones, Sex pistols, bad brains, discharge, dead boys, pretty much, punk, metal, etc, all borrowed from one another for a sound they were looking for, first 2 maiden records were heavily punk influenced by Paul DI'Anno, also were originators of their own sound, many welcomed the metal guitar to their sound, suicidal tendencies, minor threat, the Exploited!!!! etc etc etc........
many of these post 2000 and newer "thrash bands" while i love them keeping the scene alive, thrash was a product of the 80's metal with many punk influences thrown in to be faster, and vice versa with many punk bands.
I grew up with my Dad and Moms records, Hank williams, rolling stones, thin lizzy, waylon Jennings, captain and tenile, (yeah i know) john denver, the beatles, zeppelin, mahavishnu orchestra, chicago, and a bunch of "rock" bands.
They influenced many heavier bands, but they are still rock bands.
sure, i may get a ripping, but I've grown up during the beginning of NWOBHM, the birth of thrash, hardcore, death metal (THANK YOU TAMPA!!) and have attended probably 1000+ concerts since the VERY early 80's.
the death of metal from the seattle morons (The Melvins the exception) which did a hard damage to metal, (at the time was mostly the hairspray bands, who were in it for the women, booze,.. and did i say women?)
took a while, but the seattle fad lasted far too long! eventually went the way of the dodo (thank satan) sure, there were many talented bands, but the damage they did to the Metal scene/fans is undeniable. Pantera was there to help carry what was left of the flag, BUT, pantera are much more known (in the metal community) as a 2nd rate copy band of the mighty "EXHORDER" even though Anselmo denies it, just give a listen. While Pantera did help carry the torch through a seattle grungy fad, they (the metal fans know) of the first 4 Pantera albums. The first four Pantera albums , i think the first was sung by Terry glaze, but was fired. then Terry Lee the next 2,... i think.
anselmo took over for T Lee on the Power metal album. all the early pantera stuff is good, if your a fan, and have not heard the albums, check em out.
im tired, I may chime in tomorrow, or after a few more modelos' don't want to argue, but many of the posts in here are NOT metal bands. mainstream pop bands who are touted as metal by the media, or the bands themselves to try to gain the diehard fans,....one listen, and after the first 20-40 seconds, we know who they are.
the past 20+ years, there has been this "genre" category, hard metal, symphonic metal, folk metal, and god knows, 30 more genres in the past 15 years.
Its cool, but some of the stuff, and the chug, chug, rap/pop/ stuff makes me throw up in my mouth.
anyway, rip me if you ant, im throwing my experience in here, as a diehard metal fan since a very early age.
some first 8 tracks/albums were kiss, def leppard, billy joel, styx, ac/dc, motorhead, and many more. I remember as a youngiin, taking my parents to a local shop here once called "the music joynt" music up front and the smoking paraphernalia in back. anyway, I wanted the copy of ac/dc high voltage and Judas priests Sin after sin, parents asked the salesman "is this considered "acid rock?" he said kind of,.....so needless to say, i had to cut many lawns to buy those myself. worth the wait.
stay heavy my sister/brother metalhead!
p.s. i have a massive box of ticket stubs dating back to 1981, earlier ones i didn't think of saving, as my cousin had to take me to shows, as at the time i wasn't old enough to drive yet. many are signed, most were soaking wet from the crowd, but i have a nice Jeff hanneman, and probably 300+ other signatures from shows over the years.
Dave Grohl quoted Lemmy (late of Motorhead) - "Lemmy’s the king of rock
’n’ roll—he told me he never considered Motörhead a metal band, he was
quite adamant."
Quite right too. Motorhead were never JUST a metal band.
On the other hand, just like Zeppelin, they are automatically considered to be one of the most famous metal bands to emerge from the UK.
Basically, you don't have to be a 'metal' band to play metal. There are no such rules and distinctions in music where crossover is often king.
In fact here's another great metal track that wouldn't normally be associated with this artist. William Shatner's awesome take on Pulp's Common People
I read alot of different opinions here..about difference, when did hard rock become heavy metal...Cream ,Hendrix,Led Zepplin...Blue Cheer,Mountain, Black Sabbath ,Deep Purple where the first explorers of the new world.
But the few times I’ve heard heavy metal, I couldn’t help but notice it was so compressed that whatever fidelity good audio gear brings to the party might not be as noticeable on typical recordings in this genre.
Of course, that wouldn’t hold true for well recorded heavy metal.
Compression can be especially true of some metal, but it is by no means a defining characteristic - so you are correct that there is well recorded/produced metal. Check out the link provided above and simply type in the artist for a measure of compression. Red very compressed (bad?). Green/yellow not compressed (good?). That was an edit - I was initially imposing a judgement, now bracketed.
Many quite well known and contemporary artists who are miles away from metal also issue very compressed recordings. Not that I know many these days, being over the age of consent. Difficult to listen to without quickly becoming fatigued, I wish it were otherwise.
IMO this is a great subject...thanks to OP for that.
I'm not a fan of this genre, either. But the few times I've heard heavy metal, I couldn't help but notice it was so compressed that whatever fidelity good audio gear brings to the party might not be as noticeable on typical recordings in this genre.
Of course, that wouldn't hold true for well recorded heavy metal. Someone who's into this genre would know which recordings those are...
@cd318, pedantic is good. Heavy rock is just that. It may be loud, with lots of shrieking vocals and dominant electric guitar, boisterous and many other things of merit. That was a few Zep songs. Levee was very much blues, a country-blues song originally written and recorded by a couple of folk in 1929.
Just as with other examples some have provided which are clearly nowhere near metal, like AC/DC.
Metal enthusiasts would quite possibly take exception to instances where this distinction is blurred by people who don't know or don't care. Musicians find this important.
Dave Grohl quoted Lemmy (late of Motorhead) - "Lemmy’s the king of rock ’n’ roll—he told me he never considered Motörhead a metal band, he was quite adamant." {from Wiki}
Yeah, I found that slightly surprising, too - but quite understandable.
And importantly, since this is a thread about Heavy Metal, a sub-genre of Metal itself, we must be even more careful. Unlike politicians who are tutored in the art of deflection when asked a direct question, we have nothing to gain by not being focused.
Its only fair. Zeppelin didn't even come close. Ever.
It would be equally wrong to deny that Led Zeppelin were not Heavy Metal as it would be to say they only played metal.
Clearly they were a multi faceted band with a wide range of influences from blues, folk to rock.
Yet it would be extremely pendatic to say that tracks such as Rock and Roll, How Many More Times, When the Levy Breaks were neither metal nor heavy, wouldn't it?
Heck, even the Beatles could be Heavy Metal at times.
It should be obvious that any genre of *well recorded* music will benefit from a good sound system (even if it's great sounding music you don't enjoy). But as mentioned previously, during the worst of the Loudness Wars, there were many excrementally mastered recordings compressed to near black hole levels. Sadly, I have a few of those that are really great (in my ears) *music*, and sound great in a noisy car, or via .wav file on half decent headphones, on a plane (as they were intended to). But on my main system where the lack of dynamic range in the recording is so glaringly apparent, there really is no benefit - more of a deficit in enjoyment in fact.
But, listen to Black Sabbath's eponymous album, or Rush's Caress of Steel where the recordings are good and the dynamic range is not squashed, and yes indeed, they really benefit from better playback gear with greater dynamic range capabilities. And for Symphonic Metal (e.g. Epica, Nightwish, Evanescence, Within Temptation, etc.) which I listen too ~50% of the time, especially the live recordings with full symphonies backing, the better the playback system, the better they sound. YMMV of course.
I suppose since no system is perfect, I think you would need a uniquely tuned system for every different genre. I finally put together a system that I can say sounds fantastic with any genre....except heavy metal. I'm talking new heavy metal and maybe only some. Classics like zeppelin etc sound great, but I would call that metal, not heavy metal.
My brother visited and wanted to hear some music that I never heard(heavy metal) and it sounded embarrassing. My thought was my system is musical and resolving(maybe even laid back?) and the recording engineer for these songs wanted noise and peaks on the VU meter?
I am a fan of all music but in my reference system, the tracks we played sounded underwhelming and one dimensional, thin, no bass weight, fatiguing, etc. All good cuts from tidal btw. My system still shocks me on how good everything sounds because it has a truthful sound.
Don't intend to talk you out of buying high end gear, just the opposite, you can ALWAYS upgrade your sound system to your liking. Just needs to be tailored to heavy metal to get the magic the same way someone would add a sub if they are listening to pipe organs, or a horn speaker for vocals, etc...My experience..
Thanks for the link featuring Black Sabbath! I know you cant tell much from a youtube feed, but I thought it sounded terrible. Hollow and shouty. Other than dynamics it was a bust IMO.
An audio system should do justice to any type of music played. If not something is off. And rock music and metal are not inferior recordings many metal and rock acts used much care in mastering. As with all types of music bad recordings exist.
Lots of snarky comments and snobbery as expected in an audiophile forum when word "metal" is uttered but it's unnecessary and down right childish to s..t on someone else music. Those of you that do, go to your bazillion dollar system and listen to your three records that sound good and be happy. Moving on...... Any and all music or even non-music will benefit from a hifi system. I don't care if you listen to fart noises, it will sound "better" on a hifi system. Most of metal AND rock music is not well recorded, that's common knowledge. It doesn't mean i can't have a hi end (to me) stereo, does it? Frankly the whole premise is strange to me.
I could not agree with Miller Carbon more (understanding there is a 50% chance you are being sardonic).
I like metal but its not my every day go to. I listen to EVERYTHING.
I have bought, borrowed, or stole +/- 50 vinyl albums in the past 12 months with my new system.
My three best sounding records that I would use to illustrate the difference of a $10k 2-channel system vs. my friends Bose home theater: 1. Metallica, 2. Notorious BIG (gift from my kids), and 3. Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust.
agree with you a trillion percent. A lot of audiophiles are not actually music lovers. Ignorant to assume? Maybe…do I believe it to be absolutely true? Yes. One of the things that makes metal so great nowadays is how well the production is. Makes you all warm in your tummy tum;)
ANYONE LOOKING TO HEAR ONE HELL OF A BRAND NEW “METAL” ALBUM SHOULD CHECK OUT SLEEP TOKEN’s NEW ALBUM.
First, I don't equate "high resolution" with price. The recording engineers certainly don't record on $100K speakers. Or even $10K speakers (although Genelecs come close).
Secondly, Led Zeppelin is not heavy metal. Black Sabbath is recognized as the start of metal (although a few would claim it's Blue Cheer). Thirdly, "heavy" metal is now a genre of "metal". "Metal" is the umbrella term.
Moving on. As someone who listens to metal 90% of the time, the answer is "Yes". If the sound is recorded it's obviously better to be able to hear it as recorded. Take Metallica's Sad But True as an example. Bob Rock put plywood on the walls to get a bigger drum sound. In my car I can't really tell. But I can on my system.
Rock, hip-hop and metal recording has been plagued by the Loudness War, which squashes the dynamic range. So there are only a few songs I'd use in a demo. Where I find some speakers fall apart with metal is on congested extreme (technical death) metal. There's just so much sound all at the same time the speaker puts out mush. One such song would be Hideous Divinty's The Servant's Speech (warning: this is not for the uninitiated).
Some other songs to hear what a good system can do on metal:
Exodus - Deathamphetamine (good drums) Oceans of Slumber - The Banished Heart (superb female vocals) Andromeda - The Words Unspoken (interesting guitar/synth coordination; precise lead guitar tone) Metal Church - Metal Church (drums) Deviant Process - Unconscious (well-defined bass) Distant Dream - Sleeping Waves (reverb; imaging; guitar dynamics) Sylosis - The Blackest Skyline (well-defined forward rhythm guitar) Xanthochroid - In Deep and Wooded Forests of My Youth (a non-metal well-recorded song from a metal band, with superb vocals, flute, acoustic guitar and accordion)
"Absolutely! Unfortunately, a percentage of this genre has marginal recording quality at best. For example, Iron Maiden, to me is rough on the ears. Still enjoyable albums!"
Agreed. By some dastardly quirk of fate, or twiddle of a post production engineer’s knob, it would seem as if Heavy Metal (also Heavy Rock, Punk etc) seems to suffer more than other genres.
There just seems to be an inordinately amount of bad digital transfers that seem to go against the very ethos of the music they are supposed to serve.
In particular the use of compression/loudness for this type of music is hard to stomach.
When you think of all the poor digital Motorhead releases through the years, it’s pretty obvious that those doing the transferring could not have been fans.
At one thoughtless stroke, casually discarding all of the theoretical advantages that digital had over analogue.
Heavy metal artists put a lot of time and energy into achieving just the right amount of painful distortion. It may seem the way to play it back is with a system that adds even more painful distortion. This however is not being true to artistic intent. We must at all times be mindful of the artists creativity and aesthetic intent. Probably much of the reason audiophiles look down on heavy metal is they simply have not developed the transparency and precision of their systems to the level this most sophisticated of all music genres demands.
Depends on the high-end and the Metal. Some speakers purposely have a mid-bass punch that make Metal more visceral, and others roll off the top to keep that Metal from sounding like a high-speed dental drill. If the high-end speaker goes for a more controlled bass and an extended treble, some Metal may not sound as good.
Absolutely! Unfortunately, a percentage of this genre has marginal recording quality at best. For example, Iron Maiden, to me is rough on the ears. Still enjoyable albums!
I think that in the post production of mix down of such loud music, the recording engineers use "limiters" to clip the wave forms so to not distort the music on the CD or record. When I've transferred CD's to a WAV file on the computer, the wave file is always trimmed off like a crew cut. I assume this is necessary to reduce distortion as a result of the recording limitation. If this is so, I think that playing back a truncated signal would present challenges such as listener fatigue. I also suspect that faithful reproduction would be impossible or at least futile.
I listen to Classical about 99%. The other listening is mainly 60s/70s pop or Classic Rock. Most of the pop music sounds just fine to me on a lower end system. The good producers of the day mixed and conceived the tunes thinking that the listener would be using AM radio in a car or a cheap transistor. Even if I BT the Shirelles or some Phil Spector production from my phone to a mid Fi system it’s still a massive increase in SQ compared to what I used back in the day. If I listen to such fare on my best system it sounds like overkill, like driving an expensive car in the driveway
kennyc Heavy Metal music can benefit from a high resolution system. The disc (CD/LP) in question should be well produced and recorded from the start.Most bands will not benefit due to the lack of production. Prior to discovering Jazz, I came from the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal camp. I still enjoy that genre quite often. Happy Listening!
I appreciate the recommendation. However I must disagree that it was the beginning of Heavy metal. Zep & Sabbath are generally known as the beginning (1969). But IMO, Iron Butterfly was HM and were playing before Zep & Sabbath. And I'm sure there were others. That said, in the '60's & early 70's the genre was mostly known as hard Rock hard. There was lots of hard rock too with too many artists to mention. IMO, HM is not easily defined, especially in the 60's & 70's. IE, where does hard rock end and HM begin?
I grew up a metal only fan loved all of it. Even though my listening habits and rotation have changed I still will put on some metal. I would not say that on my reference system it is bad but it definitely sound different from what my ears remember. Have to realize my memory is with it played loud at a party, in a car, or even at home never siting in the sweet spot. Bose speakers hanging from the celling and my chair under them. I have to admit I think it sounds better in my car than at home right now but that is only based on my memory. I have listened to new releases like the new Iron Maiden at home where I have now built in memory and I does sound great! IMO It does sound much better at low to moderate volume, I find I turn up the Doors and turn down Maiden.
i feel lucky to enjoy my room. and the room tuning-sweat equity part of it, which cost me almost nothing, and took twelve years of learning and effort, is really what makes it special. having a big budget (spread out over a couple of decades of system building) is only a part of it. the pieces need to have synergy. all the little things acoustically have to be right to handle large scale music without it falling apart as things get cooking.
i do listen to heavy metal (that fits my taste) at high SPL’s and enjoy it a great deal. much of my drive to sell my old house and buy the new place 18 years ago, was so i could do justice to large scale music and not have the room hold the musical enjoyment back.
That's no room...(say it with me..) that's a space station!
I have been there, trust me, a space station is what audiophiles settle for when they don't have the budget for Mike's room. Put it this way, when the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation wanted a system suitable for the Enterprise it turned out the Holodeck was easier and cheaper.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
