Does Heavy Metal music benefit from a high end audio system?


Not to dig at the genre although I’m not a fan, does Heavy Metal music benefit from an higher resolution systems? I’m not talking about comparing to a cheap box store system, rather, would one benefit moving from an audiophile quality $5-10k to a $100k+system?
kennyc
@cd318, pedantic is good. Heavy rock is just that. It may be loud, with lots of shrieking vocals and dominant electric guitar, boisterous and many other things of merit. That was a few Zep songs. Levee was very much blues, a country-blues song originally written and recorded by a couple of folk in 1929.

Just as with other examples some have provided which are clearly nowhere near metal, like AC/DC.

Metal enthusiasts would quite possibly take exception to instances where this distinction is blurred by people who don't know or don't care. Musicians find this important.

Dave Grohl quoted Lemmy (late of Motorhead) - "Lemmy’s the king of rock ’n’ roll—he told me he never considered Motörhead a metal band, he was quite adamant." {from Wiki}

Yeah, I found that slightly surprising, too - but quite understandable.

And importantly, since this is a thread about Heavy Metal, a sub-genre of Metal itself, we must be even more careful. Unlike politicians who are tutored in the art of deflection when asked a direct question, we have nothing to gain by not being focused.

Its only fair. Zeppelin didn't even come close. Ever.
@cd318
 Hmm... maybe someone should start a thread on well recorded Heavy Rock and Metal albums available in the digital format?

As far as dynamic range, that's already been done.

https://dr.loudness-war.info/
IMO this is a great subject...thanks to OP for that.

I'm not a fan of this genre, either. But the few times I've heard heavy metal, I couldn't help but notice it was so compressed that whatever fidelity good audio gear brings to the party might not be as noticeable on typical recordings in this genre.

Of course, that wouldn't hold true for well recorded heavy metal. Someone who's into this genre would know which recordings those are...
But the few times I’ve heard heavy metal, I couldn’t help but notice it was so compressed that whatever fidelity good audio gear brings to the party might not be as noticeable on typical recordings in this genre.

Of course, that wouldn’t hold true for well recorded heavy metal.


Compression can be especially true of some metal, but it is by no means a defining characteristic - so you are correct that there is well recorded/produced metal. Check out the link provided above and simply type in the artist for a measure of compression. Red very compressed (bad?). Green/yellow not compressed (good?).  That was an edit - I was initially imposing a judgement, now bracketed.

Many quite well known and contemporary artists who are miles away from metal also issue very compressed recordings. Not that I know many these days, being over the age of consent. Difficult to listen to without quickly becoming fatigued, I wish it were otherwise.