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Is revealing always good?

I recently bought a very revealing and transparent CD player (and AVM player). Because I listen to redbook CD's and 705 of the CD's I listen to are jazz recordings from ca. 1955-1963 the recordings often have bad "digititus." The piano's ring, clarinet is harsh, transients are blurred --- just the nature of the recordings. With a revealing CD player, all this was palpably evident so much so that at least 1/2 those CD's were rendered unlistenable. Now, with a cheaper, more colored CD player (a new Creek) --- not nearly as revealing --- one that "rounds off" some of this digititus, these CD's are again listenable.

So... is revealing a particularly good thing for redbook CD playback? I think not. is "colored" always a bad thing? I'd say no. At least for CD playback. Thoughts?
robsker
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
I feel revealing is a must but its only 'good' if it reveals a system that sounds good. If there is a flaw in the system, a revealing CD player will make that flaw shine. Most say they dont want that and would rather mask a flaw with another flaw. A good sounding system that satisfies you emotionally should be revealing so you can get as close to the performance as you can.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I think the problem is people's idea of what the word "revealing" actually means. I know many folks who feel that revealing equipment/cables, are those that highlight the upper frequencies, and thereby seem to offer more resolution. This makes for entertaining HiFi, but not for natural music.

I prefer a more neutral sound, one that neither highlights the upper frequencies hoping to inspire a heightened sense of resolution, or one that highlights the lower frequencies hoping to inspire a heightened sense of musicality.

I like to call it naturally revealing. There is plenty of information there, but not artificially stimulated sound.
barto
52 posts
 
Completely agree!
I think it can be achieved.
Choose your gear carefully, combine well and your system can be extremely revealing whilst remaining easy on the ear and a pleasure te listen to.

Bad recordings won't sound so bad anymore, much will be revealed of them in a way that makes the most out of it, not ruin it.

Agree that one component or cable in a system can ruin this balance.
It is always easy to blame the recording.

"Hey, didn't this used to be a bad recording?"
I have though many times in the past:)
rja's avatar
rja
2,382 posts
 
I think "revealing" is good up to a point. It's great when it's revealing a great recording but when it reveals all the naked shortcomings of a bad recording it may not be so good. Especially considering there are far fewer of the former and many more of the latter.
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
when it reveals shortcomings of a bad recording, you have succeeded. You dont want to pollute your rig so it makes bad recordings sound acceptable. What you can do is try to make them sound better. My "bad' recordings all went away when I got a new killer preamp, upgraded cables and controlled my vibration and ground as well as finally did something with my room. My motown CDs do show the treble boost but that is on the recording. What you can do is get either a lesser cartridge or lesser cd player (cheaper, not too good at revealing all the flaws, for those 'bad' recordings). You still have a revealing system (better cartridge/cd player for the good recordings) and you haven't compromised your rig. For me, I could not rest until the bad recordings sounded awesome. There really are very few very poor recordings. Even what seems like compressed pop cd's from the 70s can sound better off a hard drive, resampled/clocked and then going through a really good system. You really want to be able to play everything-audiophile cd & vinyl as well as stream tidal and all of it make your jaw drop. Dont compromise...and in order to not compromise, you need to reveal.
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