2. amps-preamps
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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.

 

jumia

Showing 2 responses by mike_in_nc

mike_in_nc
1,178 posts
 

Good equipment helps, especially speakers and room acoustics. Yet with a bad recording, even the best equipment can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Not only are many recordings bad, different recordings can be bad in different ways. Even "good" recordings can have wildly varying bass levels, for example.

If one wants to play only audiophile recordings, there is a fairly well defined target. If one wants to play a wide variety of recordings, sooner or later, an equalizer will be in the cards.

mike_in_nc
1,178 posts
 

@sns

I often hear talk about bad recordings and good recordings, but what are the particular qualities that qualify a recording as bad or good for you?

Here are mine. I expect them to differ for others.

What bothers me most about a recording is bad tonal balance. Screechy violins or vocals. Scratchy vocals. Shrieky vocals. Booming or almost nonexistent bass. There are plenty of examples of such recordings, which is why I always have an EQ in my system.

Next comes lack of overall transparency, but that may be redundant, as it’s often caused by lack of information at the frequency extremes.

Imaging and sounstaging? I enjoy them when they are good, but lack of perfection rarely bothers me.

 

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