Jaw dropping enhancements in sound quality

I don't like hifi systems that only sound good when the source material has large dynamic swings no. Such systems will disappoint more often than not.

 

I think you're missing the point, only a good system will express the dynamic range well.

have you ever heard Muddy Waters Folk Singer??
if not try to listen to the remaster then listen to the Mobile Fidelity version with no compression and tell me which one you prefer.

 

He doesn't care ... he's enlightened.

 

When I left University my friend had a Quad 77, marantz CD player and KEF QXX speakers, I had a second hand ensemble. He persuaded me to listen to some kit at a HiFi shop with the intention of actually buying something.

Amongst other music I took the Lee Perry Arkology along. The guy doing the demo sniffed at it. However, it was hearing the bass done better than I'd heard before that swayed me more than anything else. That got me started off but only because I wanted to enjoy my music.

I've never bought anything because it was supposed to sound good. That said, some recordings do irritate me but in the same way that some music does, (like 99.8% of Kylie Minogue). I'm sure most people are like this.

Not everyone is though and I don't think many magazine reviewers come across like that either. For evidence of this all you have to do is look at the last issue of HiFi+ and the music reviews section to see what is reviewed in the minuscule 'contemporary music' section of the magazine. Followed up by a Genesis Retrospective?!@#!@ (they do do AC/DC by way of a counter)

 

I think you are missing the point. Only a good system will allow you to feed off the micro dynamics left by the mastering engineer.

 

Lol!

 

Of course, an audiophile might beg to differ - but then I noticed you were particularly offended by distortion when you stuffed the cotton wool in your ears ;-)

 

If your friend is a dub fiend, then taking arkology along with a bunch of other stuff may be a smart move. The setup which makes the best all round fist of a wide variety of the sorts of stuff you listen to makes sense.

Peter Qvortrop of Audio Note UK has suggested in the past that if you want to dem some kit, listen to a wide variety of material that you've never heard before and go for the kit which engages your interest best musically. He argues, that listening to material you are very familiar with encourages you to be overly analytical and not listen to the whole - he may have a point - on the other hand this may just be a variation on the dreaded tune dem .

By the way this thread has probably generated more self important, ego tripping, snidely provocative bibble babble than any thread on this forum in a long time, to the extent that I suspect some members see it as a sort of sport.

Regarding the OP ... I'm not sure I've ever had a really jaw dropping speaker swap moment .... but then it would seem I'm not non audiophile enough to justify dropping enough money on kit to achieve the sublime sense of self satisfaction that it appears is necessary to achieve that exalted and enlightened state. I'm simple enough to think that you can get a good sound without spending vast amounts of cash and enjoy your records therewith. I also own no audiophile pressings of anything and never have, one of my favourite records is a very scratchy and muddy sounding 1940s Woodie Guthrie record, and if you try to persuade me that anything much is going to make Hot Fuss by the Killers sound good except having it remastered by someone with a clue, good luck to you.

 

Perception is a wonderfully unpredictable quality in the human psyche.

 

That was one I nearly picked on, but I think maybe it is meant to sound like that. It sounds like they used one of those pretend tape saturation plug-ins on it. I think it does do something kinda nice to the treble, but at the same time it takes a lot away, and in the rest of the frequency range its really nasty

Still.. I do enjoy the music.

 

Sat here listening to Oasis , WTSMG, it's doing a remarkably good impression of sounding exactly as it would if I were listening to them down my local pub - possibly exactly what the band were trying to achieve?

 

So we have members here who've over the years spent a fortune on hifi, have gone through innordinate amounts of kit, avidly attend hifi shows and 'valve' manufacturers, are probably still hooked into finding yet another passive preamp, super dac or room correction dickwhatadoodle, turntable plinth made of gorrilla sponk etc only then to turn to the rest of us mortals and tell us that recording quality is unimportant and that 'we' are the audiofools!-catch on to yerselves-you sound utterly ridiculous.

 

Good god the internet is a crap medium at times. We started this conversation by saying that

A) Your system should not make half your music collection unbearable and

B) The better my system has got, the less music is unplayable.

And you say that means sound quality is unimportant? Huge leap.

 

See above word corrected.
Point still stands.
And who said anything about half their music being unplayable?-everyone who noted cd shortcommings had it as no more than a few(5% ish).But some people in an effort to impress(how sad) opined everything should sound good and that only a truly good ubber system makes every thing sound great-if not your system is shit-that is a ridiculous position that is quitessentially audiofool.

 

Exactly? Only if they were using a shite pa

 

Agree entirely. There's no accounting for what some will resort to in an effort to feel important....

Guess the ultimate is to reach Beethoven status....doesn't matter if you can't hear it even, as long as you are playing "the right" kind of music.

 

I don't think anyone is trying to impress. Ian, Neil, me, Tones. None of us are exactly willy wavers with pictures of big speakers as avatars and in depth kit descriptions on line in multiple forae.

We are just relaying our experiences. I can't help it if you somehow have an issue with that. Like I say, perception is a wondefully unpredictable thing.

 

Funny how you can speak for allof them...official spokesperson or mindreader?

 

Why do you guys always have to turn these conversations into something personal.

FWIW, I know the people concerned - have done for years. We are friends. I'm sure you are aware of the concept. Still, I'll wait here for them to all post that no, they were indeed willy waving and telling you you had a tiny penis of a system.

 

Hey it was a joke and not even that personal