Mixed Results from My Hifi

Boa2 has some good thoughts. Also, try moving your speakers forward in the room about 3 feet or so. (I like to try 1/3, or 1/5, or 1/7th the length of the room). Your soundstage should grow quite a bit, with more spacing between instruments and a lot more depth of stage. Try it, you've got nothing to lose. Throw rugs, drapes, "Room Tunes" acoustical treatments and such may also be a good place to start. Happy listening.

I would agree that the recordings are the major culprit, the excessive compression on these type of recordings kills the intimacy and nuance, result, wall of sound. Extra brightness could be alleviated with equipment changes and major acoustic treatments. The acoustic treatments required may be too obtrusive for a living room which needs to serve other purposes as well.

SORRY, didnt notice the link for the photos. How, well, smart.

Listening room. Hard surfaces everywhere. Try a rug infront of your listening area. Move the speakers out from the wall, perhaps on the rug.

Its called digititus, I used to get it really bad. In my opinion the only cure is to get into vinyl. I no longer have a digital source in my system. I know people who own very expensive players or transport/DAC setups (Riemyo CDP-777, Esoteric X-03, Esoteric separates, Marantz $7500.00 player, Krells new 505, Krell SACD standard, Expensive Wadia gear etc.) I myself have owned Krell, Sony SCD-1, and Sony CDP-777es.

I find a lot of the problem to be in mastering (or lack there of). I agree there are a few cds that sound good, but I've yet to find one that compares with a great piece of vinyl on a good system. Switching from digital to analog was the best move I ever made. Just wish it were cheaper to do.

Happy listening to all (even the people who are going to attack me for my learned the hard way views) - John

I have these on CD;
"Rush of Blood to the Head"
"X&Y"
"Parachutes"
"C'mon,C'mon"
"Wildflower"[best sound quality of the bunch]
"All That You Can't Leave Behind"
"How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb"
The layered images,texture fine,but they congest up loud.
Equalizer and dead car interior helps them a lot unfortunately.
I'm dissapointed with the Lanois/Eno egineered U2 disc.