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Bad recordings and high end audio

Hello. Have decided that the kids are out of the house and I can dedicate some space and money to my long ignored hobby. What is different now is there are so few audio stores. I firmly believe in listening to products so thus I start this great new chapter of my life. The first 2 stores I went to the people were very patient with me and I listened to a ton of combinations. They asked me did I want to hear anything else and I said  yes, ummm,.. how about Led Zeppelin? I received the same response from both stores which was “all Led Zeppelin recordings are horrible” except for this one version of Led Zeppelin 2…blah blah. So I said what happens if I am at home and i have a desire to play Led Zeppelin or another perceived poor recording? They did not have an answer for me nor did they play Led Zeppelin lol . I ended up ordering a pair of Magnepan 3.7i’s from a different store. 13 weeks until I get them, ouch. I am going to guess that people do listen to poor recordings on great systems because you just want to hear a particular album, right? Or am I missing something? Just looking for a bit of insight. Yes, I know they want it to sound the best so I will buy it but is that the only motivation. Or maybe they hate Led Zeppelin, lol.
daydream816
johnto
1,042 posts
 
I am always rocking it with my Maggie's 3.7i and love them. Even the so called bad recordings sound good with great equipment. With Zep I will usually go to the first 2 on the Page remastered CDs but still enjoy the vinyl. Let your ears do the listening there is always something new to discover with each new play.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,617 posts
 
Of course people listen to all kinds of recordings good and not so good. A good hifi just let’s you hear whatever is there better. Including differences in remasters of those recordings popular enough to warrant remastering. A good hifi will let you hear differences in various Led Zeppelin releases mastered in different ways as well. If you like the music you should like it even better on a good hifi. Unless the details don’t matter to you and any version is then a good one no matter what it is heard on.
jl35
4,138 posts
 
I do find I sometimes prefer listening to some "lesser" quality recordings on a "lesser" quality secondary system...a great system can magnify faults...some stuff I only like in the car...
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,277 posts
 
Two things to consider.  How loud do you like to listen?  A system that sound great at 95dB may not be the one you prefer at 75dB.  Does your system have tone controls?  Decent tone controls will not make bad recordings great, but they will make them more enjoyable.
daydream816 OP
38 posts
 
Thank you for the quick responses!! Still trying to decide on the other components to go with the 3.7is. There is plenty of information and opinions about that subject on these forums. Unfortunately, the place that had the Maggies had limited options. I do enjoy details of course, I would need to dive in regarding how to use tone controls effectively if my system has them. Is this an important function when I am searching for a preamp or integrated? I think I would have a tendency to  do what was suggested and listen to Led Zeppelin…loud!. Logic told me that i will enjoy all music on my new system, maybe some types better than others. I know there always is a sacrifice. I was just hoping that i did not miss some huge point and all of a sudden I only enjoyed Led Zeppelin through my blue tooth speaker better lol. 
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