noise distortion for certain tracks

got an album, same track. Sounds fine. Must have been the CD. 

@steakster 

so these were ebay CDs, I am pretty sure not factory originals, which gave me the pause. Otherwise, all your questions are spot on.. It's Joanie Sommers with a bright and powerful voice, the recording is 60 years old, I will find out if the album sounds better. Most likely it will. 

All good. It just depends on how important the track is to you.

Go for it.

@fuzztone but I don't enjoy it, it's like a pebble in the shoe. So... chase :)

Not necessarily distortion in the recordings, just their affinity for exciting deformation products in your playback chain. I have 3 different amp/speaker systems with identical sources and room. All different reactions to every recording. 

You either enjoy the music as is or pass.

Or chase.

@jtcf 

"by carefully matching components"

I guess I am not done. :)

That's fairly common with digital recordings. Details and dynamics in the "presence region" can be too harsh unless you can find a quality remastered version. It's possible to alleviate most of that by carefully matching components and some tweaking.Depends on how much it bugs you if you want to put in the effort. YouTube is so compressed that it can be easier to listen to.

@carlsbad " vocalist hitting a resonant frequency " may be the word to describe it. I think  the speaker is good enough to show the flaws of 2nd grade recording

Assuming that isn't just how the recording sounds, then are you describing a vibration?  Is the vocalist hitting a resonant frequency of something loose in/on your speaker?

@ghdprentice thank you

That happens on some recordings. Other media or mastering ,any not have the problem.