Recordings that only sound good on resolving systems

We’ve all had pieces of music we love, only to play them on a good system and realize how poor their sound quality is. Lately I’ve noticed some releases I’ve owned for a while, which I’d classified as ’crappy’ recordings, actually sound amazing on a good system. I’d given most of these a few listens after purchase, only to decide I didn’t like the sound.. usually because of some type of distortion I found unpleasant. Yet playback on a resolving system reveals details and not distortion.

Recently, I purchased an album by Shabazz Palaces and found it lacking in sound quality when played in mp3 format from my phone on my car stereo. I just couldn’t get into it, the sound was too messy. Yesterday I put the vinyl on my home system to give it another chance and it sounded incredibly good. This reminded me of other albums this has happened to me with. Anna Von Hausswolf’s ’Ceremony’ was unenjoyable on an earlier iteration of my system, before I built better cables, tweaked my turntable and got new amps. Now it sounds amazing. Same thing with Diane Cluck’s ’Macy’s Day Bird’ and some tracks from Aphex Twin’s ’SAW II’.

It seems there are recordings out there that have a certain sound that requires a system resolving enough to bring out all the details. Without that resolution, the sound is just a mess. Has anyone else noticed this with any of their recordings?