equipment sound bad?


I took one of my favorite recordings to a local shop and played it on huge $11,000 Martin Logans and huge Classe amps. My recording sounded "bad" on this setup, whereas I had always enjoyed it before and I think I know why. Because the system was so transparent, had so little coloration of its own, it revealed more accurately that the recording itself was not very good. I don't think there was a problem with the room, the components or the speakers. OK, the room did have some strong rear wall reflections, but for the sake of discussion, let's say that the system was near perfect.

So, here's proposition #1 - we audiophiles have devoted our souls to searching for better and better sound reproduction only to find that when we get there, it can be a less than satisfying experience. Ironically, we wouldn't know how bad the recording was if we had a more mediocre system. Is this our reward for the pursuit of aural perfection?

Proposition #2 - it's all about perception. What sounds great to you might sound bad to me. Should we pursue the most musical systems instead of the most technically accurate?
dancarne
Accuracy is a blind alley. You wind up with an annoying 'hey listen to that!' trick pony. Go for the emotional content.
I consider myself to be an audiophile, have worked in several aspects of the audio industry including recording, and now am prisident of the local audio club. A have found most recordings to be unlistenable as there quality is so bad, when I take a good CD into a store most systems are so choked there are no dynamics and little to any detail. My reference is what a real insturment sounds like, if it is a good recording, I can tell or be very close in picking what microphone was used. I continue to seek out good recordings because when you have a system capable of reproducing tonality with speed a triangle will sound like a triangle not just a pleasent smooth sound, by the same measure a CD with digital errors written in it will sound very bad. I think this is what audio reproduction is all about.
I understand where you are coming from and I think its that high end systems bring out all the details. Whether those details are nuances of the music or inperfections in the recording. It emphasises the bad parts as much as the good parts.

The thing is though you cant build a great system that will make bad cd's sound good because then the good cd's will sound bad. How would a cd player distiguish between a detail in the music and an inperfection in the recording.

Manufacturers have to design there system around a goal. To push the limits to perfection it creates this unfortunate trade off but if you think about it there really isnt any other way.

I use to have a huge problem with bass because I was so use to the mass market speakers that add bass. You get use to that sound and miss it when it wasnt there. Then you get use to quality and cant live with either. I ended spending eight thousand dollars in subs just to get the bass that I had come to enjoy.

If your high end speakers added bass then the perfect recording would sound bloated and boomy. Although it would make the recording with inperfect bass sound better.

There are many many cd's that I use to think were recorded well and now I can bearly listen to them. Its very unfortunate. To bad there wasnt a high / low resolution switch.
Dancarne, what exactly do you mean when you say your favorite recording sounded "bad". Did the dealer's system reveal that it was a poorly engineered track? Did it reveal some previously unheard fault in the musicianship? Or did the system fail to provide the emotional impact that the music normal delivers? It's possible that your reaction could be a combination of these factors. From an audiophile perspective a lot of pop/rock music is poorly recorded. It is not engineered to be played back on full range/low distortion systems. The engineer purposely manipulates the sonic qualities of the recording to sound best on lo-fi systems. There's also the possibility that listening in a dealer's showroom is not conducive to the enjoyment of music. Your mind may have been in an analytical mode as opposed to an get down and boogie frame of mind. BTW, what was the track you played?

I agree/disagree with Sean. A good system should sound very good to the primary listener of the system, but it should also sound reasonably good to any educated listener. It's not an entirely subjective experience.
My chief criterion for system building is to bring out the music on ALL recordings. This is not to say that I can't or won't be able to tell a good recroding from a bad one. But if music I love is unlistenable, mostly I blame the system. -Dan