I have quite a few audiophile friends and recently made the rounds listening to their systems using a variety of recordings and came to the conclusion that they had built their system to only sound good with audiophile stuff so that's all they could listen to on a regular basis. Any thoughts on that?
gofar99 Messages: 1902 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, I listen to all sorts of stuff but mostly vinyl followed by CDs. I won't listen to anything recorded poorly. There is too much that is done well to do that.
Wayne Parham Messages: 18676 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
You can only get out what you put in. Anything else is an alteration of the input signal. A good system is designed to reproduce the input signal faithfully, not to distort, alter or enhance it in any way.
Having a system that sounds better on some material than others can be an indication of some sort of defect. Could be in the playback system, or could be in the recording.
As an example, some radio stations intentionally enhance bass and treble and compress the dynamic range. This sounds good on little portable devices that lack dynamic range and response at both ends of the spectrum. But when you play this on a good system, it sounds bad - it sounds like what it is - compressed, spitty and bass heavy.
So but that leads to one problem with a good system. Play bad stuff through it and it sounds bad. Play a record that had been overdubbed too many times in the recording studio and you'll hear the tape hiss. Play a CD that had been compressed too much during production for top-forty airplay and it sounds like an AM radio turned up too loud. These things are in the material, so they'll expose themselves like a rotten fish when played back on a good system.
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