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
Can you tell us some examples of CDs you have listened to that do not sound good that we might be familiar with?
Get an assistant, hand him the bad ones , shoulder your shotgun and yell, PULL!
It depends on how bad. Try to find a better copy, tolerate it, don't listen, or adjust the tone controls to mitigate the mix. I know it's just plain impossible on some recordings. Face it, you can't make silk from a sow's ear and you may just have to toss the recording and go eat barbaque instead!
Why not a machine that can uncompress and restore the recording to its original dynamics? It seems this should be possible.
It is a shame that bad recordings can't be returned. To me after I pay $15.00 for a CD (or more) and it sound is hideous I should be able to return it and buy a new CD (not a exchange it for the same one).

Bad news for you LP fans, I've purchased just as many records that were poorly recorded as CDS.

It is not the format, it is the recording engineer, artists, etc. Some labels are noted for poor recordings while others tend to get it right.

I propose a machine (something like a DAC) that would take the digital hi rez feed and then give the user a choice on how it is mixed for car, mp3, redbook, no compression, natural dynamics, etc. This would give the enduser the choice.
My poorer recordings sound much better ripped to hardrive with EAC and then played through squeezebox/benchmark. What is unlistenable through my Esoteric is tolerable through the squeezebox.