Jaw dropping enhancements in sound quality

Personally I prefer chopped pistachios and chocolate sauce on my ice cream sundae. Hundreds and thousands are for poor people

 

I don't think anyone is really suggesting choosing music purely on the quality of the recording. What they/we are saying is that the quality of the recording does effect enjoyment of the music. Kmac obviously feels he needs to factor it a little higher in his music choices than he has been up till now.

The idea that the sound quality has nothing to do with the music and your enjoyment of listening is plain crazy, especially if you post here. And that is what some seem to be saying.

 

Gosh I agree with SM again.

The music is first and foremost. And if a system is so GOOD it makes CDs/records unplayable then it is doing something bad, no matter how impressive it is with super sounding CDs. My CD collection has a small portion of audiophile music, but it is mainly 'normal' CDs and I must be able to listen to all of them.

With my system, which has decent cables and a good rack (just to be provocative??) then the enjoyment is increased. But a lot of my CDs are not good recordings, but the music is what I want. Normally, I listen and it is with a tinge of regret about the sound quality (for a few mins) but the music shines through in the end.

 

Yep, of course it is. I would have though that most people on this forum got into hifi as a result of their enthusiasm for music not the other way around, I know I did. I buy music I like by bands and musicians I like, and I listen to it. That's it really. The quality of the recording is better on some than others, but that doesn't really influence how often I listen to them.

 

Mike ,your right my system has stopped me playing some of my collection , I no longer play many CD's because they sound such a pale imitation of vinyl, the system is sublime thanks for enquiring, any new photo's of your 'lash up'.

 

I think the problem with ALLOWING the quality of the recording to affect your enjoyment of the music, is that this restricts your enjoyment of less audiophile recordings.

 

I disagree, to a certain extent. I have some records which sound so bad (the worst offender being very heavy compression) that I can't listen past the sound. They get on my nerves and I switch them off.

As Paul says, the loss is probably bearable.

 

Does that make your system 'shit' Markus?

 

No. It makes Markus an "audiophile".

 

if your system makes crap recordings sound good, its probably something horribly coloured like a Bose you see in Selfridges. Plain vanilla ice for me, made with quality vanilla pods and dairy cream. nothing else added thanks - no nuts or hundreds and thousands. I find some vinyl does sound poorly recorded - because it is. when my system is good, its VERY good and that is down to vinyl recording quality as far as I know. That shows my hifi to be just honest at what it portrays - garbage in = garbage out. However - For those truly great sonic moments I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

We aren't talking about sugar coating anything - quite the opposite. I am saying that my experience is that the better the system gets the less important the recording becomes once you pass a certain point. I can play everything and whilst some are obviously better than others, I don't not listen to something because it sounds horrible. And it's more revealing as a system than some I have had before which did make me reject some CD's.

 

no, it makes him honest

 

Ah well at least you concede somethings do sound horrible.
I thought you'd completely lost your marbles.-so SM what things that do sound horrible do you listen to?
And how much, as a percentage of your listening time, would you say you devote to such horrible discs and also as a percentage of your collection would you describe as horrible?.
I ask because I have a huge record collection(acquired over 35years) and have it nailed to about 5%(mostly newer stuff as it happens).
I am also old enough to have gained most of my early teen visceral musical pleasures via radio luxemburg and radio 1 mw and enjoyed every second of it.
A visit to some of the pro audio forums would enlighten you as to the number of people that hold in disdain those who work and call themselves engineers who don't even understand gain structure or who really should have stayed tape opps-these people regularly produce poor recordings that in analogue would probably get away with it but the nasty and unforgiving nature of the digital process exposes their abominations.
Lets not forget that the distortions present in the older classic recordings are analogue and aurally benign-in fact adding a richness and character to the whole groove-their digital contempories today have no such saving graces-if your system can make a digitally clipped snare, bass or vocal sound ok your system is shit.

 

Another good example of poor recording stopping me buying the CD would be the most recent Hed PE album - Insomnia. I have it on MP3 and will keep it but I would feel let down if I spent money on it. Their past albums Broke and Hed PE were brill recordings but the new one is covered with clipping and makes it sound rather abrasive which on top of abrasive music (in some parts) is too much for my poor sensitive ears.

 

Sorry to sidetrack, but getting back to the pricing of new gear...can anyone explain the pricing structure of the ART Emotion range. They are obviously shifting units but if I was paying that sort of money I would expect:

1) something that looks a bit better than a kit speaker, and;

2) something that has the potential to put me through the back wall of my listening room if I so choose.

The ARTS seem to fail on both counts and top out at £15k. I know that I am obviously not their target market but £15k, c'mon, hey

 

Okay so far we have the following premises:

1) The qualtiy of the recording is irrelevant, its the quality if the music we should be concerned with

2) If poor recording inhibits your enjoyment of good music then you are an audiphool more concerned with sound quality than good music and your system is crap

Both are merely personal opinions and are not absolute truths.
I don't happen to subscribe to either of the above.

 

£25k I think you'll find.

 

So you rejected some CDs with your previous system because they did not sound good - does that mean that when you rejected them you were concerned about sound quality but now you only care about good music?

 

Neither, it means my old system highlighted the failings whilst my newer one does not, yet is both more revealing with greater resolution. There's no nasty peaks in the response around 12khz for instance ,which there is on many loudspeakers. No lumps in the midrange - which again there is on many even expensive exotica.

Of course there are some heavily compressed loud recordings that need to be listened to at sympathetic volume levels, but that's not a problem if your system is good enough to be enjoyable at low levels. Many aren't - again many expensive audiophlie systems only really come alive at high levels. How do you judge playbeck level of your various recordings out of interest? With a meter or do you just set the volume level where it usually is?

 

i wouldn't claim to have the best system in the world however i have focussed on certain things and tailored it towards those to stay within my budget. i don't listen to classical or opera so reproduction of these types of music is a low priority. that said it will make a fair stab at them if i do.
to get back vaguely on topic, certainly with speakers i wanted somethign that would shift air - i mainly listen to the harder / faster electronica - trance, goa, hardcore, etc. and these need fast, large drivers. unfortunately jbl k2's were a smidge out of budget as were the proac d100's (?) that i heard at s&m's that finalyl convinced me that big drivers were the way to go. to that end i spent 600 quid and a few weeks building my ipl transmission lines - these aren;t the last word in transparency and the mids are slightly coloured by the bass but they sound fantastic with 90% of my music collection (not just the aforementioned electronica) and ok with the remainder.
at the moment i'm stuck with a pair of mission 700le's and even they are good in the small room they live in (but not up to the ipls).
as for recording quality - a lot of what i listen to is live recorded at various raves - so quality is poor - doesn;t stop me enjoying them though. so maybe i DO have a good system.