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Should a good system sound bad with bad recording?

A friend of mine came home with a few CDs burnt out of "official" bootleg recordings of Pearl Jam NorAm tour...the sound was so crappy that he looked at me a bit embarrassed, thinking "very loud" that my system was really not great despite the money I spent. I checked the site he downloaded from...full concerts are about 200 MB on average. I guess I am dealing with a case of ultra-compressed files. Should I be proud that the sound was really crappy on my set up?!!!!
beheme
mark02131's avatar
mark02131
99 posts
 
A bad recording should sound bad on a really good system. I have a led zepplin CD that sounds ok in my car but is so compressed that It makes my system sound like a transister radio.

Mark
slappy
903 posts
 
If a bad recording sounds good on a good system, wouldnt that indicate the system is somehow coloring the music to make it less offence?

I'd say crap in, crap out.

Imagine Crap in, T-bone steak out.
That would make the whole digestive process a little less appetizing.
"Here, eat this piece of shit. Very good. Yeah thats right, the peanut too. Now, come back later and crap a t-bone on my plate."
onemug
784 posts
 
I agree on the garbage in/garbage out factor. If you have a revealing system it will reveal the garbage or reveal the quality of what's being played.
beheme OP
231 posts
 
Slappy, my friend is actually a Chef in a respected restaurant in Montreal so I will pass your comment to him, I am sure this will wipe the residual smile he may have thinking my system is mediocre!!!
wberdan
86 posts
 
I've heard (and had) gear that made bad recordings unlistenable. Playing bad recordings through my current set up is more than tolerable. I actually have a fairly large collection of recordings that are recorded very poorly- and while my system never fools me into thinking these are gems, they are still listenable and never harsh or fatiguing.

Will
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