What to do with bad recorded CDs


When I upgraded to Mcintosh and Accuphase - Kef speaker system, I am in heaven for the first time I started this hobby a decade ago.

I found my-self not even breathing, to capture every bit of nuance of the music... It was a great moment for me - and I am a professional musician. Rarely do I encounter such moments in live music !

Good Hifi can equal if not better live performance - for me.

But alas, heaven turned into he-- when I put on badly recorded materials. It revealed bad CDs to the point of me wanting to throw them away.

What do audiophiles do about that ? Go back to a lesser system to play these ? Or should I throw away great portion of my collection ?
gonglee3
Seems that only one out of ten CD's are mastered to audiophile standards. To overcome this shortfall you might consider adding a turntable to your system. It will open a whole new world (or old world) of superb recordings that CD's have failed to imitate.
Get a decent equalizer unit. I know it goes against the perfectionist in us but it really makes a difference on badly manufactured CDs, albums, cassettes, & reel to reel tape. I would be unhappy without mine to use when it can actually improve the sound.
I have found that some 'tweeks' help to take the edge off of a badly recorded CD. Mapleshade micro polish helps. Audio Desk edge beveller backs off some of the nasties. Painting the edge with a permanent marker possibly will reduce jitter. Bottom-line, however, is that as your system continues to become more transparent, it will naturally expose more of what is in the CD good and bad. I have some CDs that I will not play over our reference system while they sound tolerably good over our Bose Wave radio/cd player.