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"Bridge Over Trouble Water" sounds artificial

During the pandemic I've been upgrading my sound system.  I used to enjoy Simon & Garfunkel, "Bridge Over Trouble Water".  With my upgraded equipment the hi resolution audio sounds very synthetic, with one track on top of another, not like real music at all.  The voices are doubled and violins just layered on top.  On my same system, I played a live concert of Andre Previn playing Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".  It sounded real and beautiful, like a live performance.  Am I doing something wrong?
aeschwartz
ivan_nosnibor's avatar
ivan_nosnibor
1,047 posts
 
...exactly. The same recording on different systems can have a different impact on a listener as to it’s inherent quality.

Is there really no such thing as ’relative recording quality’...I don’t actually know. I just know that as a group, we audiophiles might like to Think there is such a thing as relative recording quality...but is there really...?? Can we really define it’s limits? I occasionally come across cause to wonder how safe it is to think that we actually can.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,220 posts
 
When you put down the sound of BOTW you are denigrating the work of this man, Roy Halee.  He knows more about what sounds good than you do.
aeschwartz OP
40 posts
 
I linked to the Roy Halee interview.  He says that he banged on a garbage can with a microphone inside when recording "Summer in the City" by the Lovin' Spoonful.  Sorry, to me that is not music.
gpgr4blu
1,086 posts
 
The Mobile Fidelity Ultradisc One step Bridge sound quite good unlike the Greatest Hits vinyl and cd version and all of the  other cd versions that I have including the  2011 remaster.
gosta's avatar
gosta
839 posts
 
Obviously Mr Garfunkel couldn't take those high notes in the end so he needed some help which screwed up the recording a bit (done better today). The same with Mr Mercury. But he had Mr Taylor to help him out. Whats the problem? Still a very enjoyable and interesting recording. You can clearly follow what they did in the studio. Thanks to high-res. 
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