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Beating the RVG Horse

I wanted to throw yet another question out there related to the Rudy Van Gelder re-masters.

If you read any of the previous threads on this topic you might recall that I'm not a huge fan of the sound quality, generally finding the recordings to sound thin and tinny.

Ordinarily I try to stay away from the tone controls on my pre-amp, or as Rotel calls it “tone contouring” (I guess it’s sort of an internal EQ with four pre-set levels plus neutral). I try to stick with the sound as originally recorded on the grounds of trying to get a sound as true to originally played as possible. I do confess that this position is born out of some sort of ‘don’t mess with mother nature’ philosophy rather than any consideration to whether or not it sounds any better. Neurotic or not, I generally equate these things to touching up the Mona Lisa because you don’t like the color of the dress.

On the other hand, I have recently started playing around with the tone control on my pre-amp and found that –particularly with some of these thin RVG recordings, they do help to fill out the sound, even if it is by artificially boosting the bass.

Anyone have any thoughts on this kind of fiddling?
grimace
herman
2,253 posts
 
To paraphrase Duke Ellington, If it sounds better it is better. Fiddle away.
rcprince
3,070 posts
 
RVG didn't necessarily make his recordings to sound good on a high end system, so if you need to rationalize you could say that by using the tone controls you may well be getting the sound he originally intended. My view is that if tone controls can let you enjoy the music you want to hear on an otherwise unlistenable recording, it's a no-brainer to do so. By definition it's not the Mona Lisa that you're messing with here, after all.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
I haven't found that all of the RVG CDs I've bought have sounded tipped-up, but tipped-up or not they're certainly smoother texturally than most of the older Blue Note CDs. But to the point of your post, you can't know, between the response changes imposed by the original recording, the remastering, and your system and room, what the original performance really sounded like -- and even if you could, as I said it couldn't be accurately captured and reproduced anyway. So for all you know, when you adjust the tone controls to make the end result sound 'better' to you, you may well be making it sound more faithful to the original performance as well. Stop "beating the horse" (and yourself) and just ride it.
grimace OP
624 posts
 
Yes, I suppose "if it sounds better is it better" is a good way to think about it. Plus, I have pretty much concluded that my 120 watt Rotel amp doesn't generate enough current to really drive my Spendor S8s. It never seems like it has enough juice to get the bass really cooking.

Thanks guys.
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