Why Do Some Recordings Sound Great and Others Dead?


I listen to Radio Paradise MQA on my NODE 3, SMSL M400, B and O Beolab 8000’s and Hsu 15in sealed sub.  The acoustics in my room are poor.  I’ve noticed that some recordings sound very realistic. For instance the vocals on a Stabat Mater dolorosa hymn sounded great.  But a Nora Jones recording was terrible.  Her voice was lost in back of some murky instruments.  I’m familiar with this recording listening to it on my iPod, where her voice shines out and the music is good.  I’m wondering why the big differences?

128x128tcotruvo

Recordings are mixed per the studio's speakers. They might agree with yours, they might not.

what @fuzztone said

I don’t know about the other 2, but "light as a feather" is a great song and I’ve heard it many times before.

Her vocals are clear and forward. Her voice peaks quite a bit, but her voice is balanced. Instrumentals take a backseat The track moves at a slow pace, like a light feather falling! Sound character overall is slightly warm. Not too bright.

I agree it’s a great song, so it’s either Radio Paradise or my system that is the weak point.

’’When I Was Older’ by Billie Eilish is a delicate female vocal that sounds great on what I have.  I’ll keep exploring solutions and/or skip songs that don’t sound well.

It’s a common symptom of narrow, but tall peaks in the mid-bass or bass. Clipping them with an EQ/DSP is often the answer.

The reason it affects some recordings but not others is because the peaks are pretty narrow, so many recordings don't trigger the bass node.

While you CAN fix this with a variety of ways, like moving a sub, speakers, bass traps and moving your listening location, these particular symptoms are easy to deal with via DSP. 

Of course, other methods may give overall a better, broader solution.

One more thought, as an experiment you might try removing your DAC from the chain and let the Node do everything to see if you still hear significant differences between songs.