Amazing. I used to shop at PDQ Records in Tucson. Unfortunately, the closed a few years ago. Been there?
Are you a record guy… Don’t care much about the system… or both. Love to see what a collection like that looks like.
Isn't it really about quality of recording?
Are most of us just chasing our tails?
I mean you listen to a variety of recordings and some sound a lot better than others. Your system has limited impact on how good recordings can be. I am awestruck how some music sounds and clearly my system has nothing to do with it, it all occurred when the music was produced.
We talk about soundstage and imaging and I am not sure all the effort and money put toward a better system can really do that much for most of what we listen to because the quality is lesser than other recordings.
You can walk into a room and hear something that really sounds good and you say wow what an amazing System you have but no!!! It's the recording dummy not the system most of the time. Things don't sound so good it's probably the recording.
The dealers don't wanna talk about Recording quality no one seems to want to talk about it and why is this? Because there's no money to be made here that's why.
Showing 7 responses by ghdprentice
Wow… you should post photos of your system and collection! I have 4,000 albums.. about half and half vinyl and CDs. I am giving away my CDs… just no point with streaming. But my albums take up a wall… that is a lot of physical media. You can see most of my media on my virtual systems photos. You have over ten times my collection… that is amazing. |
@jumia I have been at this for fifty years. One by one I have switched each of my components to tubed components. My systems have sounded better and better over the decades… my current by far the best. I would not be even remotely interested into going back to solid state. You can see my systems under my UserID. FYI. There are two major parts of a system component… the power supply and the main amplifying stage. Hybrids tend use tubes in one and not the other. In my equipment tubes are used in both. |
Thanks for your perspective on recordings. Valuable to hear.
Personally, for years I pursued the latter “good” system… scrape details with lots of slam and over the years switched to the kind that makes all recording sound better… although there were a few early rock that sound like tin… and just cannot be salvaged. But those are rare. |
It depends. There are systems built on the basis of more details are better… in that case correct. But there are systems based on musicality and natural presentation: for those recordings will sound much better. Two or three decades ago I realized systems could be too revealing… with the loss of musicality. I remember correctly choosing between a Sim Moon 650D and 750D DAC / CD player… where the 650 balanced detail/musicality and the 750 scraped every last detail off of a disk or file… but would completely ruin a less than perfect recording. The trick is to balance detail with musicality… like a knife edge… one step too far in either direction and you either end up with overly revealing non-musical music from all but great recordings or warm lacking in details presentation. My personal view is that Audio Research has nailed the balance perfectly at their highest level Reference Series. |
Let’s see, I would say 98% system and up to 2% recording. Depends on how you look at it, 99% makes sense to me… as a great system can make bad recordings sound better. About 85% of recordings are average, 10% great, and 5% real stinkers. In the fifty years I have been pursuing high end audio my system an the playback of, for instance the anlbums I bought in the ‘70s, have sounded better and better, by an order of magnitude.
If you hold your system at one level, then the difference in recording becomes the major factor. |