High Performance Audio - The End?

Listening further into bad recordings is not enjoyable IME — the warts just get easier to hear. Yes, there are some good pop recordings, but sadly not many. When I want to listen to poorly-recorded music I like, I just fire up my Bluetooth speaker or earbuds as I can more easily just enjoy it for what it’s worth without feeling like I’m chewing on tinfoil. Anyway, that’s how I deal with it. 

Then you're not doing it right. Don't blame the recordings. My system is so revealing no two recordings sound the same. The differences between them all is clear and easy to hear. They are all enjoyable.

When Michael was here he had me play Fleetwood Mac Rumours on the 45 reissue. He said, "That's gonna be hard to beat." Then I put on my White Hot Stamper. He said night and day.

That's what its like when you're doing it right. When you really are revealing, and not whatever non-revealing crap audiophiles like to call revealing. That's one way you know your system is genuinely truly revealing: everything sounds really good- and the really good ones even more so.

My system is most certainly revealing, call it high-resolution if you will.  There is a ton of music I own that is certainly not the best quality in recording and/or production (mixing, mastering, plating, pressing, vinyl quality).  However, I really enjoy that music so I just keep the volume a little lower and it sounds pretty good, just not great.  But again, the music is great and I still enjoy the listening session, even on a high-resolution system.  Last night I played a number of records (hey, it was Saturday night so of course I had a nice long listening session!) and was all over the place in the type of music and the sound quality.  This is but one example; Yes, 'The Yes Album' is not the best in sound quality but is still pretty good so I played it at an appreciable volume but not terribly loud.  What a wonderful album that is and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.  On a couple of songs I found it to be a little brash so, even though at a moderate volume level, I went back a couple of clicks and it smoothed out a bit more.  Up next, Jennifer Warnes, 'Famous Blue Raincoat' (numbered limited edition, reissue by Impex, from Jennifer's private analogue tape).  Turn up the volume on that one.  Holy crap, is that a fine production quality and definitely of excellent music, to boot.  Holographic, deep, about as good as it gets in every respect.  
The bottom line is that I like to enjoy it all and most definitely prefer a higher-end and very revealing audio system.  I simply treat the volume control with a little regard when playing those not-so-great recordings and let 'er rip on those fabulous sounding recordings.  Great music is a way of life, and for me, so too is a great audio system.

I’ve already posted a link to this article elsewhere, but- it seems relevant here, as well (Again: notwithstanding opinions on Robert Harley, Martin-Logan, Constellation, TAS, the term, "Hi-Fi, etc): http://www.enjoythemusic.com/tas/261/editorial.htm                       It simply reflects my understanding and definition (since 1964) of, "resolution".

@Motown

hang in there, we all will be joining you soon. 😀

funny (and maybe) a little sad when folks on the forum tell others what and how to enjoy - we shouldn’t be so heavy handed, best to maintain some modesty - the beauty and journey of this pursuit is to learn and acquire what sounds good for each of us!

a system can certainly be high resolution and also enjoyable to listen to... all things equal, higher res is better than lower res, but often higher res comes at the expense of some other tonal tradeoff, especially in more budget oriented systems

the difficulty is that different recordings are mixed and mastered hot/cool, with/without spatial cues, overdubbed to death vs simple honest mic-ing

kinda makes the case for old school tone controls, loudness button for low level listening etc etc

you can enjoy it all, played all the same on the same system... just a function of what an individual learns to enjoy (or call ’enjoyable’)

his other points aside, i feel guttenberg certainly calls it right that high res systems that have super revealing treble can often become grating when playing modern (or even 90’s) super hot mixed pop albums... i guess those are still enjoyable if you turn down the volume enough LOL