sound quality from CD to CD


I am pretty new to this. I just took a Lector 7 home to interview. Some CDs sound so great and some have sections that are just grating. They sound, well, digitally. Are some CDs just produced badly or is it my equipment--a Plinius 9200, adn NOLA Viper 2As.
kendavid
Thanks. It is a demo that the dealer let me use becase there are no players around and I have been waiting for delivery for six weeks. I dont how many hours it has, but I will follow your advice when I get mine.
Some CDs are indeed produced badly. Bad production can happen in the studio, when dynamic range is erased to produce a “hot” recording... and it can happen at the mastering plant, when the digital nasties creep in.

I have just been getting to know Dolly Parton’s The Grass is Blue; what a superb performance, and from every musician in the band as well. Not a dud riff. But the extreme top end is steely and Miss Parton’s voice has a zing on the high notes and even a bit of edge lower down sometimes. I can live with it for the feeling and the mastery in the voice and instruments—such performances don’t come along every day—but gee whiz Ma’am, I bet the master didn’t leave the studio like that.

Now you can tell the performance is great even on an ordinary player. On my best setup, there is more emotion and the songs touch me more easily. But there is not one of my players that can take away the digital artifacts that were put there somewhere in the process of getting the disc to me, and I suspect the pressing plant.
hi kendavid:

the 20 bit original lector is a bit more forgiving of "harsh" sounding recordings. i would surmise that you are auditioning a 24 bit lector which is more reolving and hence less euphonic.

you may decide to change your interconnect cable from the preamp to the cd player after the lector breaks in.