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Trade offs?

As I have improved my system the quality of the CD recordings has become more and more obvious; unfortunately poor quality and harsh sounding discs seem to bother me more as the reproduction becomes clearer.
Having recently started using Ultrabit Platinum I find it sustantially improves the sound of better recordings but also reveals the harsness in poor recordings.
This all gets me wondering,on this quiet Sunday morning, if perhaps I'm reaching the end of the line on further upgrades to my Spectral/MIT based system?
For example will a better CD player simply reveal that the quality of the recordings are already the limiting factor in my enjoyment, better Cd players won't provide more enjoyment?
psacanli

Showing 1 response by jmcgrogan2

jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
03-15-09: Tvad
Well, I disagree somewhat with Plato. If the majority of your CDs sund harsh, it could be that the majority of your CDs are poorly recorded and your resolving system is exposing their flaws.

I have far fewer well recorded CDs in my system than I do poorly recorded CDs (and the same applies to LPs).

As a system becomes more resolving, it more clearly reveals flaws in source material.

If you want more of your CDs to sound less harsh, then I suggest moving toward a less resolving system intended to please your ears rather than providing the absolute truth of the recordings.


Well said Tvad, I could not agree more. Highly resolving systems point out how poorly a recording can sound. Similar to watching a standard DVD on a 1080p plasma vs. the same recording on a Blu-Ray. If your output is high resolution, you need a high resolution source (recording) to show this. A low resolution recording will be seen/heard warts and all.

Cheers,
John
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