Is a highly discerning system enjoyable?


I argue that in terms of musical enjoyment, connection, feeling the musicians and composers maybe a highly discerning system is going too far? Maybe I want the warts airbrushed out.  Maybe I like a system that lets me listen to a broader range of recordings  without whincing?

Then there’s systems which are discerning of performances vs. discerning of upstream gear. I personally feel they are not the same thing at all.

Lastly, if your room is an acoustic mess, how can you tell?

If you feel strongly either way I'd appreciate examples of the gear that made you go one way or another.

erik_squires

there is much to be said for taking problem recordings, digitizing them, removing the problems, then burning them onto a CDR for future listening. then there is "tone control courage." case in point is the 1999 columbia rerelease of the famous 1938 all-star carnegie hall jazz concert which has abysmal sonics, conventional tone controls/EQ weren't up to fixing it, so i ran it through CEDAR declicking and decrackling with judicious restraint, used parametric EQ to get rid of the telephonic coloration those old transcription discs were noted for, mild digital NR/spectral editing to get rid of the hashy surface noise and chuffs. BIG DIFFERENCE. 

@erik_squires 

Funny you should bring up U2 War.

Always loved that record, until I bought a first UK pressing of it.

Realized that I’d only ever listened to it in a car, when the tracks happened to show up on the radio. Worked so well in the car. Not so great in my home set up which at the time was a tube integrated (Cary SLI-50) going into Decware DM946’s from a Clearaudio Concept.

Going to revisit it with the current set up which is completely different. DIY heavy plinth Lenco into upgraded Cary SLP-30 pre to DIY Hiraga Super 30 class a to DIY Seas coax sealed enclosures. 
 

Will be an interesting revisiting of War as this is a more revealing system, but also more musical to my ears than the previous set up.

 

 

Ok this thread made me give “War” a quick streaming.   Oh my! Glorious!    Who even knew all that was there!

The producer for U2 at the time and Pink Floyd had extremely divergent opinions of what to do with bass.  It is so incredibly apparent.