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How Many Of Us Are Compensating

No matter how elaborate, expensive or tweaked our systems get we are ultimately at the mercy of the sound quality of the music we purchase. The record producer, recording/mastering/duplicating engineers have set a hard limit on what can be retrieved from the recording media. Fortunately, the best recordings have a very high threshold as repeated equipment/set-up upgrades continue to discover additional levels of high fidelity sound. On the other hand, the average commercial recording can be quite pedestrian as far as sound quality goes. Over compressed, heavily EQ'd, non-existent soundstaging, etc... To what degree have you assembled your system and/or set it up in a way to compensate for the less than stellar sound quality of typical recordings? If you have "compensated", do you think what you did compromised the sound of the better made recordings?

As an example I have adjusted the toe-in of my speakers slightly more outward to avoid some objectionable upper midrange/lower treble hardness present on many modern recordings. Secondly, within the last year I've switched to a preamp with 7-band tone controls to deal with the really bad recordings.

BTW, I don't see compensating as a good or bad thing. I think it's far preferable to limiting what we listening to because it might not sound that good on our expensive toys.
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
I don't compensate.

I find big budget movies are generally very reliable.

I find music is all over the map (depending on mix/master).

Correcting is too much work and I listen to so much music...I can't imagine playing each track once...then making EQ adjustments and then playing it again. I just have to live with it. I suppose this may be a possibility one day with a hard drive system and pro tools.....much like photo software you could store the original raw data and also an "enhanced" version...may be we should patent the idea and call iSound or Soundshop (as opposed to iPhoto or Photoshop)

Note that hypercompressed music is beyond repair there is nothing one can do when the source data has been clipped, compressed and squashed into "noise with a beat."
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emailists
923 posts
 
I now run a biamped system using a remote controlled PS Audio GCC amp for the woofers (below 60 hz) just so I can dial in how much bass I need per recording and my listening level at the time.

I find bass is the most variable factor in a recording since it seems most mix systems/rooms have differents bass characteristics.

I am probably giving up some coherence in the bass by not have my MA-1s play full range, but the adjustability has brought a new level of satisfaction to my system (hey just like normal people's systems who have a bass tone control)

On my Harmony remote I have one rocker set for main volume, the other set for my H-cat's WTC control, while the inner small 4 way button has bass amp volume up/down, mute (just to hear it without the woofers) and phase of the woofer amp.

Very quickly per song I can dial in the perfect overall volume and just the right amount of bass to give it a nice foundation without muddying up the midrange.

Since I use Cerious liquid cables in most of the system, they are extremely natural and laid back. Who knows, I may in fact be giving up some ultimate air and extension, but everything sounds wonderful, with just the occasional trumpet being too piercing. WHen my system settles down I may experiment with different cables just to see.
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
Emailiist and I do the same thing, tho my bass amp has no remote but I will tweak it from recording to recording and its a great option all the same that only takes a recording so far but I dont sweat the small stuff.
stilljd
161 posts
 
I can compensate by moving speakersÂ… Magnepan 1.6's. That would be hard to do for most. Way out in the room for acoustical or small ensemble. Push them back (almost 3') to up the upper base & mid range output for rock, wall of sound, etc. Also have a second player (Pioneer Elite carousel) that is less edgy and have fitted it with mid happy Straight Wire Rhapsody IC's.

I really like getting the best out of the special (to me) performances and recordings. And sometimes you just want good loud rock.

Jim S.
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