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The WORST Components for Rock and Pop Music

Like many of you, I enjoy a wide variety of music.

Although there have been a few threads on topics like: "what speakers can really ROCK" etc, I have not found them to be very useful, as many of the recommendations would not suit my other preferences in music.

So here is an interesting and hopefully thought provoking way to look at this dilemma from a different perspective:

What components or systems, have you owned and loved, UNTIL you tried to play your favorite rock and roll or pop music?

What audiophile components would you recommend for everything BUT rock and pop?

For me, this brings back a memory of the CES show, circa 2004 when I was really excited to hear a gigantic pair of Sound Lab speakers.

They probably would have sent shivers down my spine with Patricia Barber, but with Jim Morrison and the Doors playing Peace Frog, I stood up and left the room.

Thanks for any thoughts or ideas.
cwlondon
ajahu
306 posts
 
Really, none of the modern, sleek loudspeakers with one or two 6.5 woofers are good for rock, they just lack the push for rock.
xiekitchen
821 posts
 
Sean,
Sounds like you have some electrostatics there!
As for the AR's, I had forgotten about the real big ones, esp. with the dual side firing 10's or 12's, yeah they probably really rock given enough juice. I'm thinking more in line with the 3's, 4's or 2's, the classic "new england" sound of 3 decades ago that AR is famous for, vs. say, Altec Lansing.
mitch2b35
5 posts
 
I agree with Sean,
many high end systems do make Rock and Roll sound anemic. Its like you can also hear the production through the speakers. Interestingly enough what did improve rock and roll through my system was playing it from my ipod.
As if degrading the sound actually improved it.
Just my 2 cents
Mitchell
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
That makes a lot of sense to me as I usually listen to rock in the car where fidelity is not an issue. Good point mitch.
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
Something along the lines of "Pink Floyd The Wall" or any other of the hundreds (maybe even thousands?) of well recorded rock albums... do sound good on any hi-end system that can playback at fairly high Spl's...most e-stats and planers can not do this except in small rooms.... all though their are a few exceptions.

I don't listen to a lot of rock music at this stage of my life but I do own lots of it...from "those" days.

I think Pink Floyd sounds as good as I've ever heard it "when I do play it" on my Apogee speakers/VMPS sub based system.

The problem is:

Most of the rock albums I own are from the 60's-80's...most, are not well recorded. They do sound ok in my truck and on my boom box because those two playback systems have a very limited freq range, ie....I don't expect much, so I just enjoy the music.

With our "big rigs" it can be somewhat hard to "just enjoy the music" when we.... "expect so much"

I will add that my 35 year old stepson is "very heavy" into rock. I have played back some of his music for him on my system...he was, as we like to say...BLOWN AWAY!

Most of the rock he listens to are bands that I know nothing about....tons of heavy bass and lots of screaming! I guess if I did enjoy his music (a good amount of beer did help)...I would enjoy it "more" on my system than his.

Dave
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