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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.
128x128onhwy61
gawdbless's avatar
gawdbless
1,235 posts
 
IMHO the better the hi-fi gear the better ALL recordings will sound and that includes the supposedly 'duff' recordings. To say ones' system only makes a few cd's 100% listenable is plain daft. And to start moving speakers around is even dafter!What next? Move house?!My only compromise is how many cd's my better half allows me to buy!
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
I dunno, a good system will convey the shortcomings of a bad recording period. You cant seem to have it both ways.
gawdbless's avatar
gawdbless
1,235 posts
 
A quote from a well respected Hi-fi reviewer in the UK, doesn't really matter what speaker he is talking about as long as its worth Its salt, although he is talking about his very own Impulse H1's horn speakers that he still has and has had for many years. I have heard them with my own ears and I must say I am in total agreement with him. I used to be of the school that thought that It was the poorly engineered cd's that made my system sound very average. I have since seen the light (heard the music) and am now on the opposite side of the fence (coz it is greener although I think I am in a serious minority) In that Its the serious fault of the hi-fi gear If the cd's sound bad.

"Above all, their qualities directly serve music itself, making listening more immediate and involving experience. This applies even with recordings of mediocre technical quality. Listening to H1's properly partnered will cause you to evaluate many of the recordings you once thought of as sounding duff.At the same time they will make your best discs sound even better.I always believe a good system should work this way; revealing fine nuances in the best recordings while still making those of less well engineered sound convincing and musically involving"

I have a cd with Albert Ammons dueting with Pete Johnson, I was totally gobsmacked how easily it was to follow the four hands of the pianists and how musical it sounded pops an all. Now I know the cd must've been copied from a disc (tape?) from around the 1930's?
gregm
3,405 posts
 
I dunno, a good system will convey the shortcomings of a bad recording period.
And, while doing so, will also reveal the musical content better than the average system -- no?
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
yup it will, thats why I dont fuss with it and deal with the poor sounding recordings, knowing in 45-60 minutes I can play something else that perhaps will sound much better.
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