poor source material

Ucsb21:

Your last detailed statement has me raising my eyebrows. You aren't happy with the sound of any recording, yes? If so, this is indicating something else. Until you identify the problem, you could spend a lot of time and many thousands of dollars stabbing in the dark changing this, trying that, and spinning your wheels. To analyze this through a forum thread is not likely to find the problem or get you any closer to a solution. Do you have any audio friends that can listen first hand?

In the mean time, try experimenting with speaker placement, toe-in, front wall distance, side wall distance. See what happens.

Hey Pac Islands,

'You aren't happy with the sound of any recording, yes?'

actually I own a ton of albums that sound fantastic on my system. I gave some examples on my last post of a few that sounded fantastic, a few that were disappointments and some that just didn't do it for me.

I guess my fundamental question is whether some albums will sound bad no matter what kind of system (regardless of price) it is played on. From the responses I've seen on other threads and also from messages I have received it looks like the answer would be a yes.

I think the next step for me would be to bring the albums that I consider less than stellar with me to some shops around town and play them on various set ups and see if they sound better or worse. Hopefully I can then see where the shortcomings are coming from.

Ucsb21: You said "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."

While the sources you mentioned may very well be the bulk of the problem (seeing as how some are worse than others and some are fine). That being said - you can do a couple of things to make the best of it - particularly if you like the music that happens to be prolematic and want to listen to the music. One, which I state only for your consideration, is acoustic room changes. As you are finding muffled highs and mids rather than harsh highs and mids - you may want to make the environment a little less absorbing and more reflective - I have never tried that, never having had that problem, but it is worth a shot.

On another note (pun intended), while I am not a big one for amps making a huge difference, I will say that listening to Rotel amps I too heard precisely what you described. A/B'ing a Rotel vs a Bryston, there was a world of difference. At higher volumes the Rotel did fine and was very good at controlling the bass, but at lower volumes there was just the effect you found. While I do not own a Bryston - that may be something for you to consider. The 100 SST did a very nice job of driving Dali Mk II 400's - it is a 100 watt integrated and I think not priced too high. The 4bSST amplifier also did a very nice job - a little more expensive but a lot more power and a very well respected amplifier. I tend to agree with your plan - I think you will find that replacing the amp even if you have to use the Rotel as a preamp may be an economical good interim solution. It could not hurt anything to demo the Bryston units - and do so with the problem recordings as well as the ones that sound fine.

'I guess my fundamental question is whether some albums will sound bad no matter what kind of system (regardless of price) it is played on. From the responses I've seen on other threads and also from messages I have received it looks like the answer would be a yes'.

I tend to blame a system rather than any cd/album. Whats the point in spending XXXXX of $$$$'s if music is unlistenable?
Its like having a Ferrari with one flat tyre, beautiful car but about as much use as a chocolate tea-pot.