What in the world is going on.....

I suppose, hew is correct about mass market production, but I don't think it fully explains the lousy sound from high end rig. There is something else to it. Bad pressing? Dirty record? High expectations?

I can give a somewhat similar example, comparing cd and youtube.
Yngwie Malmsteen with Japanese orchestra. Great music. First, I listened to it on youtube through Grado phones, no external dac, and it sounded acceptable. Then I got the cd and it sounded terrible on my rig, I threw the cd away. Somehow they managed to completely screw up that cd, I don't know how. My expectations were not high, yet I couldn't really tolerate that crap. Still listen to it on youtube.

" It's Paul Simon, of course it is going sound crap ".
Infection, I won't disagree with that, but you were too cruel.

Well, bad recording will of course sound bad on anything but it will still sound better with better equipment. You are talking nonsense.

That's fun. Anyone wants to say that Beatles are always crap too? Or Dylan?

Thank you.

Czarivey, if you wanted to say the same about Miles Davis, this would make me extremely unhappy. But he played crap too from time to time. Everyone does.

I could even called it cleansing.

I'll take some extra badness if there is much more goodness along with it. Good music is often not recorded very well, this doesn't mean that we all have to listen to it on boomboxes. And if a 'high resolution' system makes the overall experience worse than lower resolution one, this means that either that 'high resolution' system is in fact junk or that the listener cannot tolerate the increased resolution.
If I fixated on negative I couldn't listen to any recording I like. There is a lot of garbage and distortion there.

Clapton, Santana and Beck can be okay though not really impressive, and John McLaughlin is in a league of his own as a guitar player. However, for the last twenty or so years what he has been playing does not impress me at all, unless he plays older compositions. His music appears to have run out. Well, he is 74.

It's their business whether to keep playing or not, question is who is going to listen to that playing?

But no-one said yet that Pink Floyd means nothing. That's good.

Yeah, I know his 4th dimention. He still plays great but what he plays these days doesn't resonate with me.
You are right about Segovia. Generally, classical guitarists don't position their right hand in a natural way, unlike flamenco and jazz guitarists. They also elevate their left foot, strange as it is.

Kclone, when I listen to my system which is not very high end, my expectations are quite high. When I listen to youtube or cd on computer drive thru Grado headphones the expectations are low, so whatever sounds okay makes me happy. Any cd I have sounds incomparably better in my system than on computer.
Cabling of course is always very important, be it good or bad recording.
High end system is more difficult to make sound right than lower end one, that's for sure.

Czarivey, I'll try Rolan, though I am not much into classical guitar. However, when someone plays real well I don't care about the style per se. Malmsteen has a great talent but he screwed up most of it. Some of his earlier neo-classical takes are very impressive.

Here it is. Django - McLaughlin/Beck. First solo by Jeff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viDVXHyIbCo

Wolf, be nice my man musician. Assumption is the mother of all f...-ups
Czarivey, Dyens is certainly the most unusual sort of a classical guitarist. Very good.
Still not much liking of Frisell, nothing can do about it.

I don't understand what you people find in Beck, Frissell, Clapton and not mentioned Van Halen. Nothing really special to my ear. The best tune that I heard Beck perform was with John McLaughlin, it's called Django and McLaughlin's album is called The Promise. Not a very good album except for this composition and some other that I don't quite remember. By the way, Santana can groove, find his jam-sessions with McLaughlin and Miles Davis on youtube. His albums are very weak including famous Abraxas, some nice melodies though.
Also, listen to Reggie Lucas's solo on Pangaea by Miles Davis. Or is it by Pete Cosey, I am not sure? Great anyway.

Czarivey, I'll try Bill again, maybe I missed something. I know that John Scoffield is in high esteem as well, he played with late Miles, but...not for me either.
I must say that according to what I head, whoever played with either Miles Davis or John McLaughlin played their best. Both men have this unique talent, now that's leadership.

Talking about taste in music is interesting. I can appreciate a great performer even if I won't listen to that music. As an example, I don't like opera much, but don't say that Pavarotti or Carreras can't sing, that would be nonsense. Or, you may not like McLaughlin's music but overall he is the most accomplished guitarist this world has ever known. Paco de Lucia, though in much narrower musical space, comes close second. Or, don't say that Miles Davis was technically incredible -he was not- but his music is very special and his influence on so many styles is great.

Ry Cooder is alright with me. I can appreciate different styles, from acid jazz/rock fusion to classical, the entire range. No country music for me either, that I can understand. But some of even that style can be okay, I just won't listen to it. I strongly dislike Hendrix as well, but his influence was very significant. Not as significant as McLaughlin's, though.

We did move far away from Paul Simon. " Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down ". Pretty well said.