Let the best be your guide


All of us have had to come to grips with bad sounding recordings. They can be disabling and make you question your whole system. The trick is to accept them for what they are and not to generalize. I try to listen for the music and skim over the imperfections. When confronted with a clinker, to save my sanity, I play a recording i know to be superior sounding. That restores my faith  in the system and brings me back to reality.

128x128rvpiano

Good topic.

The vast majority of albums… I mean vast majority of albums sound great on my system. That is something that has varied a lot over the last fifty years. Over the last couple decades I recognized that my choices in components strongly influenced how much of the music sounds good.

About fifteen years ago I called my system “my reference system” because I could instantly tell everything about the recording and the venue. The micing technique, the size of the venue, what color the conductors shoes were. But also many albums did not sound good…they lacked musicality and details stuck out… unnaturally… but I didn’t realize that until it was gone.

After a nearly complete turnover in my system, it is forgiving and musical and my system disappears and the music sticks out not the technical imperfections. Thank you Audio Research and Sonus Faber speakers. Maybe one in a thousand sticks out as a bad recording now.