What is the worst recorded CD you have?

Hello Bishopwill, you are right, in the late 80's early 90's I'd bought some of Telarc/Shaw/Atlanta Orc.'s and found exactly the same as you stated: Thick, opaque, congested. At the time I had what I'd called a synergy system. two 20 amps dedicated circuit breakers/Distech Powerbridge PC's/Tice Power blocks/Krell MD-1/Wadia 1000/ML-No.26/ML-No.23/HPC XLR ics/Monster M1 Spearker cable (I could be wrong on speakers cable model) JBL Studio monitor upgraded crossover with sledhammer caps, resistors etc... Anyway, I quit the "Hi-end" hobby and sold all except a few CD's left. Now that I am back, and and have a new system almost the same accept a bit more :-) (better situation you know) I try the recordings mentioned again, and found the sound is stunning resolution, soundstage is hugh - high/low/wide/inside/outside/precise/deep. Sorry for the long... What is the subject, again ? :-)

ISTT

This has turned into the audiophile versus music lover post.
I actually agree that many of the Shaw/Telarc recording are like you say. But, in many cases I like the performance on quite a few of them much better than on other better sounding CDs. I can't listen to a clearly recorded mediocre performance. I'd rather have a slightly muddy good performance if that is all I can get.

No dougbt, the performance is good, especially my favorite Mozart Requiem.

ISTT

Ozfly, no CD's but I did see a Marcel Marceau LP in the 70's. I laughed it off at the time. If it wasn't Pink Floyd or The Ray Conniff Orchestra, I could not have cared less.
I will have to try and find one. It would be a kick.
By the way, the worst CD I own is Iron Butterfly-"In a Godda Da vida". Shrill sound and so much background noise one would think it was recorded at the airport Motel 6 with a newlywed couple staying next door.

I assume Cdc was referring to Genesis' self-titled cd from the mid 80s, the one with "Mama" on it.

I do not own that cd, but I have heard the original issue on a decent system and second his opinion. It sounds amazingly bad--thin, compressed, ick. I do not know if it was remastered for the recent Genesis reissues and if it sounds any better these days (hopefully Cdc is not referring to a remastered version).