Thanks for the replies people!
Let's see. To Musicnoise and Racamuti: I have a Rotel RCD 1072 connected to a Rotel RX 1050 via some basic Mogami cables. My speakers are Dynaudio Focus 140s and my speaker wires are Tara Lab Prisms.
The major issue I have with some of my albums is that the mids and highs appear to be hidden behind the music. The crash of cymbals, the snap of the snare, vocals etc. sound muted or veiled. If I adjust the treble and turn the volume up it makes it a little better but, not always.
The speakers are new and are nowhere close to the 100+ hours of break in but, I do have a lot of albums that sound fantastic with this current set up. Some examples include, Demolition by Ryan Adams, New Amsterdam Live at Heineken Music Hall by Counting Crows, Graceland Paul Simon, James Taylor greatest hits, Confrontation Bob Marley etc.
Albums that sound ok but, wish could be better include The gentle side of Coltrane and Subtitulo and Home by Josh Rouse.
Albums that were disappointments: Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins and Let's talk about feelings by Lagwagon (HDCD), Futures by Jimmy eat World and Till the sun turns black by Ray Lamontagne and Lifted by John Legend.
Like, Shadorne mentioned, the recordings by the pop/punk labels sound the worst. With that being said I have plenty of pop/punk/hip hop albums that sound fantastic like, Lagwagon's Hoss and Wyclef Jeans' Carnival so again it is very hit and miss.
Again, the major issue for me was the missing mids and highs. Bass is not usually a problem. Sometimes it is a little boomy and loose but, that is most likely because of speaker positioning and the shortcomings from my receiver.
I am definitely going to have to start looking at higher quality recordings from now on! I'm very interested in seeing how much of a difference a dedicated amplifier and pre amp makes. Since I don't have enough money to upgrade both I'm thinking of using the receiver as a pre amp for now.
Thanks again for the replies!!!
Let's see. To Musicnoise and Racamuti: I have a Rotel RCD 1072 connected to a Rotel RX 1050 via some basic Mogami cables. My speakers are Dynaudio Focus 140s and my speaker wires are Tara Lab Prisms.
The major issue I have with some of my albums is that the mids and highs appear to be hidden behind the music. The crash of cymbals, the snap of the snare, vocals etc. sound muted or veiled. If I adjust the treble and turn the volume up it makes it a little better but, not always.
The speakers are new and are nowhere close to the 100+ hours of break in but, I do have a lot of albums that sound fantastic with this current set up. Some examples include, Demolition by Ryan Adams, New Amsterdam Live at Heineken Music Hall by Counting Crows, Graceland Paul Simon, James Taylor greatest hits, Confrontation Bob Marley etc.
Albums that sound ok but, wish could be better include The gentle side of Coltrane and Subtitulo and Home by Josh Rouse.
Albums that were disappointments: Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins and Let's talk about feelings by Lagwagon (HDCD), Futures by Jimmy eat World and Till the sun turns black by Ray Lamontagne and Lifted by John Legend.
Like, Shadorne mentioned, the recordings by the pop/punk labels sound the worst. With that being said I have plenty of pop/punk/hip hop albums that sound fantastic like, Lagwagon's Hoss and Wyclef Jeans' Carnival so again it is very hit and miss.
Again, the major issue for me was the missing mids and highs. Bass is not usually a problem. Sometimes it is a little boomy and loose but, that is most likely because of speaker positioning and the shortcomings from my receiver.
I am definitely going to have to start looking at higher quality recordings from now on! I'm very interested in seeing how much of a difference a dedicated amplifier and pre amp makes. Since I don't have enough money to upgrade both I'm thinking of using the receiver as a pre amp for now.
Thanks again for the replies!!!