Rock and Roll Snobbery

hi charles,

i agree w/ewe - a *great* system should do *everything* well. it has to for me, cuz i like small acoustical stuff, as well as loud raucous music. that said, not everyone is like me, & there *are* some speakers - martin logan cls' come to mind - that are excellent, amazing, really, w/smaller-scale music, but they yust don't have the dynamics for large-scale & electronic/rock music.

regarding speakers that sound fine for pop/rock, but not smaller-scale works, *i* haven't heard 'em, but i understand why this could be true for some - as long as speakers can go loud w/out distorting, this is fine for some rock-lovers - soundtaging cues, depth, tonal accuracy, etc, oftentimes take a backseat to the enjoyment of this music, for lotsa folks.

one person's opinion, doug

onhwy61 sez: "...Furthermore, most pop/rock recordings are not mixed to be played on high resolution systems. The producers, engineers and the musicians make assumptions about how their music is most likely to be heard (MTV, car radio, boombox, etc.) and they tailor the sound accordingly....", & he's absolutely right - *compression*, big-time. that's why i have an ol' dbx-3bx which resides in a tape-loop of my preamp, to be used as necessary to help out some poor recordings & radio, as needed. otherwise, it's completely outta the signal path....

i never bought santana's grammy-award-winning cd *supernatural*, cuz i read how dynamically compressed the recording was, so i don't know if it really is or not, but it's supposed to be. i bought it when i found it on vinyl, & the vinyl version seems ok, but not great. i've heard that it *is* much better than the cd-version, so i'm sure that the cd-version of this (and many other new *pop* recordings), get compressed like hell, in order to be played on circuit-city-type hi-fi & car-stereo rigs.

ben,

this *one* cd, by a reknowned rock legend, is the only one i know about that seems to fit the model of what's being released to appeal to the *gen-x* crowd. not much new pop-music interests me, so i can't say i know one way or the other, whether or not it's compressed.

david99, i was gonna suggest ya pick up a dbx-3bx (the earliest versions sound the best, imho - all discrete transistors) to liven up compressed recordings, but then i remembered the rogue 99 doesn't have a dedicated tape loop - it would have to be in the signal path regardless of whether or not ewe were using it... :<( too bad, these things go on ebay for ~$100... and, careful of whatcha say regarding good preamps improving digital sound - yer buddy carl eber mite get riled-up! :>)

regards, doug