The problem with the music

David99

Heh, i aint letting those babys go without some serioius cash involved. (laugh) Those babys got me through some tough times!

Cinematic, yer still just basically saying Nrchy doesent know what he is talking about, yer totally hijacking this thread and re directing it. This is not about Nrchy's system, this is about the quality of recordings that are being made. some are great, some arent.

Here is an idea, how about you go to a mechanic and ask about the merits of a particular motor oil, how about instead of answering he instead tells you your car sucks and you made a lousy choice of buying it, that your wheels brand is all wrong, the color is wrong, and your obviously ill informed since you diddnt buy the triple bladed windshield wipers.

You say it was not a cheap shot, i fail to see how.

Either way, who cares. Nrchy's virtual system is not exactly up to date ya know.

Im of a belief that good sound is pretty damn easy to get, then again, maybe im not spoiled to the point where i consider top-stellar-untouchable-uncompromised-performance "good"

Ive got a total of 3 systems, only one i have posted. Personally, i think they all sound great. They would probably make your golden ears bleed though. Too bad. I guess i consider it an advantage to be able to listen to music instead of criticizing the system, regardless to the quality of recording.

That is one thing i hope never changes.

I hope that did not come across as a crybaby, after seeing that devastating blow to Nrchy's ego you delivered i sure wouldnt want such a crippling insult directed my way.

Dont worry Nrchy, just take it one day at a time, eventually those emotional bruises will heal.

LOL

Mr. Singh,
New and Improved Slappy Outsourced from India.

It's hard to type through the tears, the screen is all foggy.

Cinematic you still ignore the points of my post. "you ignore the comments made by Mike Large. He is deeply involved in the process, but maybe he too doesn't know as much as you?" and "What level of system does a person have to own to be able to hear or comment on the quality of recordings? If I only have a boombox will that prevent me from hearing the difference between and good CD and a poorly recorded, mastered, or produced CD?"

The questions were prompted by the comments of Mike Large, not that my system sounds like crap, and I need cinematic to help me replace everything I own with lo-fi gear.

Im still not sure where i see Nrchy stating that recordings sound like crap on his system and he cannot listen to them. There ARE bad recordings out there, that is a fact and anyone who says all recordings are great is an idiot.

Ive got some bad recordings, but i still love em for the music on them, good recording or not, and they certainly sound better on my system than with some crap walmart setup, but that doesent mean the recording was well done.

This totally reminds me of threads i have seen in the past...

"Bad experience with dealer"
"i went to a retail shop and blah blah blah, the dealer was a total jerk to me blah blah blah"

Every single time i see a thread like that some idiot who was not even there comes in defending the dealer to the death as if it is not possible for a dealer to be a jerk, and do everything they can to make the victim of the bad treatment look like the monster. Yeah, yer hearing 1 side of the story, and guess what, the person very well may have been treated poorly for no reason, yeah there is the chance they were actually the jerk, but it CAN go both ways.

Most dealers ive dealt with really kick ass, great guys, very helpful, and very polite, but i have had a run in or two with the occasional jerk.

Same goes with recordings, some are good, some are bad. Does it mean a bad recording is intolerable to listen to? No, not really. Unless it was done in some guys garage with garage sale equipment with thier instruments out of tune and no talent for playing.. However, bad recordings can still be a pleasure to listen to, because you listen to the music more than the recording, and the inefficiencies of the recording can easily be overlooked by the great musical content.

Does that mean an excellent well thought out system will make a bad recording sound like a true to life LIVE experience? No. Of course not. But a great system wont hurt the recording, it might make it a little more forgivable, but it wont make a bad recording great.

I guess i really got off on the wrong foot with some individuals here, but it reminded me so much of the "Dealers can do no wrong" attitude i see from time to time. Instead of acknowledging that bad recordings exist, and attacking the poster's system and knowledge seems a little bit weak and rude.

Guess what? Some recordings Suck. That is all there is to it.

I dont remember Nrchy stating he couldnt listen to these cause they sounded bad. He probably does listen to the occasional bad recording because the quality of the music not only makes it worth it but very enjoyable.

However, wouldnt it be nice if the recording was properly done as well? Does it mean your system sucks because a poor recording doesent sound like yer in the room with them when they record it?

He was just questioning the level or recording equipment some people use and looking to use discussion to explore the idea that some recordings might be done poorly because of a lack of concern by the recording agency. That has absolutly nothing to do with his system. A poor recording is still a poor recording, even on the best thought out and engineered system.

There's no shortage of recordings that lost something (sometimes because of hacks and criminals) when they got made into mass produced lps or cds. Sometimes people can like the end result anyway, (i like the way some paintings look more in a book than i do when i'm in the gallery). Once in a while a lousy computer burn of a cd made from a cheap ass piece of vinyl can sound surprisingly good even in the sick mind of an audiophile. Have you been in a room that you thought would sound like crap and ended up being wrong about it? A musicians union hall i went to in the bay area nearly had the dimensions of a large hall way, (the acoustic bass, reeds, trumpet, marimba and drums sounded gorgeous). Sometimes it goes the other way. Recordings, venues and components that show alot of promise don't always trigger a pavlovian response. Assumptions about music, audio equipment and acoustics often have a way of biting you in the ass. It might not be as fun if everything was just the way you expected it to be.

As odd as this is going to sound there is some correlation between how good the recordings are and your system it is played on as well as the room it is in. As I am in the process of building a room for my system, the living room is the only place to put my current system. As an engineer, not an audio engineer, I like to know how things work and try various alternatives to see how things react. I currently have CDs that is very difficult to listen to due to instruments not sounding like the instruments that are playing and the harshness it creates. It is as non-emotional as it gets. So one day a friend came over and brought an active crossover with him. We played for several hours and the crossover eliminated the room problems and allowed us to alter the upper frequency issue I was having. It made ALL of the CDs I had sound more than listenable. There were things on the recording that would never have been heard otherwise. It was amazing. The Scheherazade SACD, that sounded all congested and not much life, had all of its instruments laid out there in a wide soundstage. It made the CDs that a friend of mine recorded in his basement and used software to eliminate the outside occasional noises sound more cohesive. It made the instruments sound like the instruments that we know should be playing. It was the most amazing altering of the preconceived notion I had about CDs and their recordings. All I am saying is that it is not entirely the recordings issue that is causing it to sound bad, as hard as it is to believe that. As with everything else in the audiophile world there are no absolutes.