2. music
  3. 168966-162547

Bad recordings and high end audio

Hello. Have decided that the kids are out of the house and I can dedicate some space and money to my long ignored hobby. What is different now is there are so few audio stores. I firmly believe in listening to products so thus I start this great new chapter of my life. The first 2 stores I went to the people were very patient with me and I listened to a ton of combinations. They asked me did I want to hear anything else and I said  yes, ummm,.. how about Led Zeppelin? I received the same response from both stores which was “all Led Zeppelin recordings are horrible” except for this one version of Led Zeppelin 2…blah blah. So I said what happens if I am at home and i have a desire to play Led Zeppelin or another perceived poor recording? They did not have an answer for me nor did they play Led Zeppelin lol . I ended up ordering a pair of Magnepan 3.7i’s from a different store. 13 weeks until I get them, ouch. I am going to guess that people do listen to poor recordings on great systems because you just want to hear a particular album, right? Or am I missing something? Just looking for a bit of insight. Yes, I know they want it to sound the best so I will buy it but is that the only motivation. Or maybe they hate Led Zeppelin, lol.
daydream816
asctim
445 posts
 
Be careful here. It should read: Good recordings will sound better and poor recordings will sound a lot better than they would on a bad system.
This is more in line with what I think a good system should do. I've had systems that make some recordings sound supernaturally good at the expense of making others sound unlistenable. They never measure well.  If a system has flat, smooth, extended response with low levels of resonance and distortion it will tend to make everything sound better in my experience. 
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,865 posts
 
Funny and ultimately sad story from the mid eighties ….

Super die hard Zep fan showed up at the store..wanted a system that could really rock. He left with a nice system with Hafler electronics and ADS 810 speakers. Returned it all the following week because his cherished Zeppelin didn’t sound “ right “ His reference was and remained the Kmart white plastic all in one GE sound system….

His roommate  was in a band i mixed sound for…the GE system reigned supreme some four years later…
asctim
445 posts
 
His roommate  was in a band i mixed sound for…the GE system reigned supreme some four years later…
Well at least he liked what he had, and it was cheap! Lucky chap, I say.
russ69's avatar
russ69
3,360 posts
 
I don't know your budget but Parasound A21+ or Parasound JC1s are the direction you want to take. Match that with a good tube preamp. Cary, Conrad Johnson, perhaps an ARC. This will get you where you want to be. 
stuartk
2,429 posts
 
"Be careful here. It should read: Good recordings will sound better and poor recordings will sound a lot better than they would on a bad system".

Maybe for vinyl but not in my experience, when it comes to CD playback, nor has it been the case for either of my two audio mentors, both of whom have been in the game a long time and have systems that cost many times more than mine. The better my system's become, the less I can endure listening to poor-sounding CDs. 

Perhaps we can simply agree to disagree in this case. ;o)
More to discover