What of your CD's have good sonics?


I have been amazed at the number of CD's are so bad I can't bare to listen to them on my system. It seems like over half are difficult to listen to. Vinyl seems about the same. I have been buying some classic rock albums from a local used record store and am surprised at how many of them sound bad. Most of the jazz albums I buy are usually quite good. How is it with you guys?
catfishbob

Showing 2 responses by jaxwired

Elizabeth has an excellent point. HOWEVER, your system can greatly exacerbate this problem. If you have a brutally honest, hyper detailed system, then you are just getting what you paid for. On the bright side, it's great for demoing the subtle difference between rare bird calls.

I find that very few recordings sound bad on my system. True, some are better than others, but mostly everything is very engaging and highly entertaining. I do have the advantage that I'm totally sick of all music made in the 70's and 80's, so I pretty much only listen to modern stuff.

I'd suggest changing your speakers for something that is warmer and fuller sounding with a laid back treble. Good luck. :)
stehno,

I have to respectfully disagree. You're position is the reason why so many audiophiles don't own any music they actually like. Many audiophiles abandon all the music they originally fell in love with in favor of audiophile recordings that sound good on their systems. It's a shame because it's not necessary.

I also totally disagree that a warmer fuller sound is adding distortion. It actually is providing a much needed and missing element to most high end systems. Lots of the low level detail that makes a performance seem real is in the low frequencies. Frequencies that are notoriously absent from many high end systems.

Additionally, I suspect that the warmer fuller sound with a laid back treble IS actually closer to the live performance. Many of the so called neutral honest high end systems I've heard don't sound real at all. They sound very vivid and clean, but if you compare them to a live instrument they sound a bit like a characature of the actual thing and this is because audiophiles often equate that over exposed top end with audio perfection. This misguided attitude leads to problems like the OP. Spent a lot of money, but end up with a system that is far less enjoyable than the stock car stereo in a mid-priced toyota. Pretty common actually.