It seems like the way they record the music can have a great impact on weather or not I like a CD or record. I prefer an all enveloping sound rather than pinpointed interments.
You are very lucky.
Do you trust your system?
I was constantly upgrading gear, demoing songs, reading reviews, trying to find out why I had the feeling that the song I was playing shouldn’t sound the way it does. Something off or lacking, I luckily found a set of equipment and a room setup that if a song is off, it’s likely recorded that way. I trust my system to do a decent job. I wonder do others get to a point where they are more critical of mastering techniques than something wrong with their equipment? Admittedly, it’s easier to say how a piece of gear or cable made some significant difference, but in what exactly since the music sources are so wildly manipulated by engineers?
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@dain — I love the question you pose. Here we are, collectively, trying to build/refine/tweak a system that sounds the way we want it to sound. And the only way to asses your status and progress is by playing recordings. And those recordings all have a different sonic profile. Your eye doctor determines your prescription with standardized eye charts. And then you trust the glasses he/she gives you. But what if you knew that some eye charts are blurrier than others, even with perfect vision? Some charts are black and white, others are some other combo. Some use overall smaller characters from top to bottom. Some use different fonts. And then you learn that your glasses might not seem so resolving if you look at another doctor’s eye chart. How much do you trust your glasses?
I think it’s a mission-critical question. And we all have to find ways to sorta/kinda standardize our system assessments, identifying our own “reference” recordings. But that’s not exactly scientific. Like any high end chef will tell you, when something tastes off, she will always consider all possibilities, including the ingredients (analogous to the equipment we choose). Like that chef, when I hear something I don’t like, or don’t hear something I should, I consider all possibilities including my gear ingredients. There is some art to it. It adds another level to the fun. My two cents. |
@jrw1971 thanks. You got it. I cringe when anyone refers to gear “sounding warm” or whatever, since it doesn’t make sounds. And sorry to say those’ reference recordings’ are manipulated as hell to sound good on any gear! That’s the art here. I guess if you recorded something and played it back, guess what? You’d probably like it, because you trust it. I recall hearing a million dollar system 30 years ago, fed by a professional tape machine recording of Chicago symphony. I guess it sounded good, but I wanted to play James Brown sex machine live. Well. Disappointingly it sounded like crap. Years later I wonder if I’m able to appreciate that system, but the more I hear of the fancy stuff the less it impresses since much music I love isn’t really designed to be heard this way. |
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