How Revealing Should a System Be?

It is one of the faults of having a very revealing system.

It happened to me last year using a passive conttroller,but it was not something that really distracts me from enjoying bad recordings.

Another thing I have experienced is when I get dirty AC and playback is awful. Makes things sound strident.

Try your CDP using CD Direct and that is as bad as it can get using different recordings. Try it for a week.

I am looking for an active Pre-Amp with a good Phonostage again BTW.

I believe,,, a slightly different theory.

Does poorly recorded material sound GOOD on a non revealing system? I think no, i think with more revealing setups the joys of well recorded music can outweigh some of the actual content.
I found this to be very true when switching to Hi Definition television. I found myself watching hi definition more and being less picky of its content, and actually relized the content was appealing after all!

Poorly recorded music is just,, bad, no matter the content.
I think then the real persuit becomes finding the music you like, recorded properly. IMHO

I agree - I think as you explore higher-end systems, you start to realize the limitations of the vast number of recordings. The notion that they used to sound great to you isn't that they sound good on a poorer system, it's just that you didn't used to think about it so much. If you had, you'd have been disappointed on any system.

You have to find a way to put the genie back in the bottle - my recommendation is to visit allmusic.com and surf the site for great music, and the next time you consider a multi-thousand $$ upgrade, but a ton of music instead. Maybe you can get the genie back in the bottle, maybe not.

I think this is why musicians don't get so hung up on high-end systems - the recordings are relatively poor, don't sound that much like the real thing, and they're able to focus on what the musicians are doing to make the sound they're hearing, regardless of the recording quality. In other words, they're listening directly past the recording and playback quality, and hearing the music.

allmusic.com
You go there too! I like that site for research into artist.

tough call. i just upgraded my speakers and found out thati needed a amp upgrade,which then turned into speaker cable upgrade. imo, it is much more difficult to "dial in" more revealing components to make the system sing.

i would strongly suggest to seek the help of a experienced salesman at a local audio store that is someone who you trust and is familair with your taste and your gear.

if synergy is not happening- then the whole thing sounds like crap. if synergy does happen...wow !!!!

my conclusion - it is a double edged sword.

i have good luck with dialing in a short period of time. but this is turned out to be a little more complicated than expected.

sometimes very small things bring about very noticable changes ( like cable risers- without them, you would swear you were listening to a different pair of speaker cables...btw, signal cable has some that look cool, work, and are reasonably priced).

so approach with caution and if you go that way - expect to spend more time and $$ to get things to flow.

hope that helps,

mike