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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
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gawdbless
1,235 posts
 
Here Here, Psychicanimal.
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
i value my ears too much to listen beyond 85 db.

... what i am trying to say is it depends upon preference and your choice of music.

Good point.

My point was that most real world instruments/orchestra/band go significantly louder than 85 db and a good sytem should replicate this stuff too (not just the soft music)
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
nobody has defined what a good system is.

if one assumes it means as accurate as one can afford, then such a system is at the mercy of the recording.

a bad recording can sound brutal and a great recording can be sublime. thus, one may suffer the extremes of bliss and misery.

for me, i don't want to suffer when listening to bad recordings. i believe in the law of the golden mean.

life is too short to have unpleasant experiences. if it is not hifi then so be it.
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
nobody has defined what a good system is.

A good system does what the audiophile wants it to do given a particular price point.

Of course, most audiophiles have no system goals and end up in a perpetual equipment swap, not unlike a dog chasing its own tail.

Am I good or what?

With psychic power and primal intensity,
gregm
3,407 posts
 
Psychic: :)
Not far from the truth (if at all far...)!!

if one assumes it ("good system") means as accurate as one can afford, then such a system is at the mercy of the recording

I would qualify this to "accurate to the point source".

I like such a system. And bad recordings sound worse -- but one can still enjoy the music; I don't suffer.
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