Does Every Track Sound Great on Your System?


How do you know if it is the recording or your system?

By way of example with a focus on bass, for some songs I like the amount of bass, then another song I feel like it needs more bass to hit harder, and then another song I feel like there is too much bass and it is boomy. Does that ever happen to you? I feel like I am getting the treble sorted out, but going back and forth on the bass.

Can anyone listen to the first 20 second of the song Temptation by Diana Krall from the Girl In The Other Room album and let me know if there is a bass component that is a bit much? The vocals sound good so no issue there.

Thanks.

12many

And if you need to improve well recorded albums, you need to improve your listening room and system first.

As does @bigwave1 , I also own a Charter Oak PEQ-1. Two, in fact. One for my headphone chain and one for my big rig. A lot is written about this in Equalizer in a Hi Fi System thread over there. Pages and pages comparing and contrasting digital vs pro analog EQ (like our CO PEQ). Schiit vs other pro analog pieces. It’s a great thread for anyone who wants to deep dive into this subject. I have been using my Charter Oak PEQ-1 for 10 years. I LOVE it. @bigwave1 and I have shared positive experiences with this device. Not all recordings are created the same. A pro analog EQ can really shine up dull recordings. I use mine for old rock records all the time. 

No remote on the Charter Oak makes it an impossibility for my setup. Hence the Loki Max.

I poured my heart and soul into that other thread I mentioned. I’m pretty passionate about the benefits that can be obtained from such devices. Heck, there’s even a guy on that thread who posted about his Manley Massive Passive in his very hi fi rig. Another has the legendary Mark Levinson Cello Palette preamp and EQ. These wonderful pieces of kit can be every bit as high end as any audiophile component. 

"All sound good on my system" as i also said does not means that heavily mixed pop music badly recorded sound suddenly "audiophile. Not at all . Crap stay crap...

But when you can hear the trade -off choices of any recording you are astounded to hear for the first time all acoustics parameters pertaining to each album...

The timbre of the playing instrument suddenly communicate spatial information and location of the recorded instruments and more hues.

 

Before the improvement in your system you could not hear WHY and HOW bad the recording was now you hear  how bad and why it is so bad (mixing bad tricks for example)...It stay as it was before the improvement in the system/room but now you hear how and may even enjoy it better if you like already this music for this same reason...if you dont like this music you8 hate it more knowing why ...😊

When we listen music we hear three phenomenon :

the music,

the sound quality of our system/room but through this ,

I hear also the acoustics trade-off set of choices of the recording engineer from the album itself ...

And we are happy "all sound good" because we dont confuse the three phenomenon  after the improvement in the same bad acoustic soup ...

if what i said was not true i would have never been able to tune my room , unable t6o distinguish what comes from the recording acoustics trade-off  and what come from the system room limitations.😊

 

 

IF one listens to a variety of music, from different types of producers and companies:

Recording quality varies.

Mastering quality varies.

There are different purposes for different mixes.

There are so many variables.

How *could* they all sound good on one’s system?