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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
daledeee1's avatar
daledeee1
626 posts
 
Is 14x20 a big enough room for Maggies?  

You could try hybrid integrated, some use tube pre with Class D.

PS i stream Led Zep 24 bit and it's not as bad as some make it sound.  Some versions have questionable instrument placement but guitar and voice are OK sounding, especially acoustic.  Sorry Jimmy.
jw944ts's avatar
jw944ts
333 posts
 
when you have enjoyed this hobby and music for a long time, I think you come to understand that different source materials are poor/average/good/great, just like the music itself....no system is going to make a poor recording sound great, no more than a great system is going to make lousy music sound great.  We all have our favorite music  and our favorite recordings, and hopefully we have those really special ones that check both favorite columns....I know I am guilty for buying a few LPs over the years that  I read rave reviews of , listened to them once, and never again.  On the other hand, some of my absolute favorites I dont see others mention....but isnt this all part of the fun?
erik_squires
16,731 posts
 
I think a small part of this is from audiophiles who get wowed by overly bright speakers (i.e. detailed).  Current Dali being a great exemplar of this.  Bright recording + bright speakers = misery.  Then of course there was the era of really bad digital drums at the start of the CD era.

Another part is fear of tone controls. Trying to establish some sort of cultural purity by never turning to them when you need to.

Honestly recordings over the ages have varied a great deal in their target market and expected audio systems to play them on.

My best advice is get a middle of the road speaker system not too bright not too much bass.  Use tone controls.  Get good room treatment that has a good mix of diffusion absorption and bass traps.  You'll find yourself listening a lot more and when you need to tweak it, so be it.


russ69's avatar
russ69
3,573 posts
 
Daydream, I'm a big Maggie fan and love the 3.6/3.7s. But I'm not sure if that would be the right speaker for you. You'll have to pull them out 6 feet into the room and they will need lots of power, I'm thinking 250wpc minimum. You'll also want to add a subwoofer for some added weight. I can't recommend a speaker for you, I know what I like, but in your case and your desire to listen to older stuff, I'm thinking something efficient and a nice tube amp. Good luck with your shopping. 
dynacohum
716 posts
 
When I was a budding audiophile in the '70s I bought a pair of Stax SR5 electrostatic headphones to upgrade from my Sennheiser HD414s.  Great records of the day, like "Catch Bull", or "Workingman's" sounded awesome, but what really got me was how amazing they made my collection of Chess "Real Folk Blues" mono blues records sound.  These are NOT HiFi by any stretch.  Howling Wolf was right in my head, as vivid as can be.  The electrostat's lack of distortion freed the music to express itself.  That's when I learned that a system that sounds awful with lesser recordings really isn't that great. 
Maggie 3.7is are excellent...just focus on an electronic combo that has tube musicality and high current amplification...best accomplished with a tube preamp and a SS amp (even class D can work).  
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