2. misc-audio
  3. 181640-20253

Is a highly discerning system enjoyable?

I argue that in terms of musical enjoyment, connection, feeling the musicians and composers maybe a highly discerning system is going too far? Maybe I want the warts airbrushed out.  Maybe I like a system that lets me listen to a broader range of recordings  without whincing?

Then there’s systems which are discerning of performances vs. discerning of upstream gear. I personally feel they are not the same thing at all.

Lastly, if your room is an acoustic mess, how can you tell?

If you feel strongly either way I'd appreciate examples of the gear that made you go one way or another.

erik_squires

Showing 1 response by mceljo

mceljo
1,357 posts
 

I think that there's a place for a receiver and sound processing to make poor recordings more enjoyable.  Whenever I've made a change that I felt was a significant change/upgrade I've found that my favorite albums and songs tend to shift a bit.  There's also an aspect of simply becoming more annoyed with poor recordings as a more critical ear is developed from listening to systems with a high SQ.

When I got my Denafrips Ares II DAC a pleasant surprise was that several of my favorite albums that are not great recordings became enjoyable again.  I guess it would be fair to describe the DAC as being "musical" in my system.

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