Beware poor sounding media

I listen a lot to my system… mostly streaming… so for me it is easy to just move on.

In the past I sure remember waiting with baited breath for a new audiophile pressing of (in this case), Who’s Next and being really realy disappointed. Provided it is a really rare thing I don’t feel it is a reflection of my system… 1 in several hundred. But if it is a small percent or more then I do go hunting… as my systems balance has gotten too far into the analytical side or has too much distortion.

I kinda agree with you. My reality is that no matter how great the performance may be its the audio quality that gets it played most often, but I will not listen to drek just because the AQ is high quality. When I listen to great performances with poor SQ it’s more for reference or as a reminder of what is possible. Fortunately for me its not much of an issue - I have a rather large and broad collection so I have much to choose from (I’m sure you do as well).

Newbee,

I agree. If it’s a historic recording or a great performance, I can suspend my expectations and enjoy.

Fortunately  as with you, the great majority of tracks sound just fine.

Very rare when a recording is deemed absolutely unlistenable.  The usual culprit for lesser recordings is micro dynamic compression, clearly heard as recording dependent, since music with great dynamics is reproduced as if real live flesh and blood performers in room. Quashed dynamics brings moret distance from performers, listening to recording rather than performance. Still, I find most of these recordings listenable if I don't ask and/or expect too much from them.

The strangest recordings are those with very different dynamic attributes from one track to another. Just last night listening to Syd Straw, 'War And Peace', harder rocking pieces very compressed, narrow and shallow center image, and then it's like different engineer/producer takes over other tracks, spacious, lifelike. I've heard this same phenomenon on other recordings, makes me wonder what artists/production thinking. Only thing I can imagine is certain tracks mixed precisely for mass market equipment, loudness wars mentality.