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are you disappointed of some of your old favorite songs that sound like crap on you new hi fi equipment?

pwjazz

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Coming from the headphone world, when I encounter a "revealing" headphone that makes formerly fine recordings sound bad, I usually take that to mean that they have peaky or elevated treble that accentuates hiss, sibilants and so on.
 

Gorgonzola

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I have to say YES, and I am talking about CDs. I'd prefer I didn't have to say it but my system has become ever more revealing of crappy recordings ove the years.

I have digital versions of many of my folk and rock favorites from my youth and the "fi" isn't very "hi" in most cases. Is it just that there is too much compression or are other factors at work.

As for Jazz CDs some are fine, some are awful, e.g. my recording of Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, terrible, but many others are quite good.

Likewise for Classical to which I mainly listen. Nowadays most CDs and downloads are very good, but CDs from the '80s are highly variable. In this case one suspects that they were simple transcriptions of masters created for LP.
 

anphex

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Hmm, no, never. If the new system is objectively better there is little reason for you to dislike tracks of your library unless your prior speakers we're really strange and only good for some frequency ranges and genres.
With better gear you tend to make out more detail of the songs, may it be dirt or quality, but if you suddenly dislike a song completely something is probably wrong, or was wrong.

I had a recent experience with Audyssey XT32. With my latest upgrade - hypex monoblocks - no matter how often I calibrated the system - the Pure Direct mode sounds far better than any EQ or XT32 setting. So either the DSP of Audyssey is worse than I though or my setup mic is broken lol.

Edit: Since I heard it in some sound preview videos I love the song "Annette Askvik - Liberty". It's a song where good speakers really really make a difference. That's probably why it's used so much as a reference track. But what I want to say is that I probably wouldn't have enjoyed this song on my older systems and only discovered the stunning detail with my latest speakers. So it goes both ways.
 

wwenze

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So far no.

The only unfortunate things observed are like for example finding out an older song has less bass extension or more dynamic range compression.

But a good system makes even synth music sound like what it was intended to be. There was no way people would have heard this properly in the past.



There were BGMs that couldn't be reproduced properly by the original arcade board too much less the cabinet hardware

Yea imagine murdering the island fauna with that music in the background. Then again the makers of Twin Bee were definitely on drugs when designing the enemies anyway.
 
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ABall

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So far no.

The only unfortunate things observed are like for example finding out an older song has less bass extension or more dynamic range compression.[/
so that's a yes then not a no.
 

MakeMineVinyl

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On early recordings I know sound 'bad', I make it a point to listen to them on a system with small, limited range, and not particularly HiFi speakers. Most of these early recordings were recorded and mixed with these types of speakers in mind anyway (or even a 6" x 9" mono speaker in a 1960s automobile dashboard), so they tend to sound best when listened to in this way. Also, I listen to mono recordings through only one mono speaker because it sounds more pleasing and I can concentrate on the music. I have a 1955 RCA 'Golden Throat' table radio which has an external audio input; I run a Bluetooth receiver into it and early recordings sound wonderful and especially authentic.
 
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LYDF

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Coming from the headphone world, when I encounter a "revealing" headphone that makes formerly fine recordings sound bad, I usually take that to mean that they have peaky or elevated treble that accentuates hiss, sibilants and so on.
I'm in this exact position right now. With the recently purchased HD560S the cymbals on some records are really upfront and the constant hissing sound makes them unbearable (had to resort in lowering the 5khz frequency on the eq).
 

JABrown

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Ha! I was listening to E. Power Biggs organ pieces and thought that the Doors' Light My Fire with its organ solo would sound really great. No. Also the famous saxophone solo on "Angel Baby" definitely sounds much better on a vintage 1970s car radio.
 

thunderchicken

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I run into this all the time- as I upgrade to more and more transparent gear, all the bad stuff is more and more audible. The good stuff is equally audible though, and for every Baroness record that becomes unlistenable (Purple), something with better quality pops up to take its place (Symbolic by Death).
 

Destination: Moon

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All my old favorites from Steely Dan to the Crusaders to some old Gypsie Kings, and others, usually impress the hell out of me how good they sound today. Maybe I'm just deaf but I don't think so....a few are awful but most sound great. I'm partial to studio recordings, not live
 

Jim Matthews

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Billy Joel's "River of Dreams" has not aged well.

The production is inconsistent, and some tracks are lush while others are revealed as heavily edited and choppy.
 

DVDdoug

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File me under "no".

I've never found improved equipment to make anything sound worse or to be less enjoyable. Some older recordings from the 50s & 60s don't sound that great, but they never did.
 

tmtomh

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As I've upgraded my system (and switched to a larger room), I have certainly found that the flaws and limitations of some recordings and masterings become more apparent. The biggest change for me has probably been in perceived soundstage - precision/location of instruments, but mainly the width and depth. As my setup improved and my room changed, a lot of recordings "grew" along with the improved imaging of the speakers and the increased width of the room/width between the speakers. Other recordings, though, stayed the same or only "grew" slightly.

Beyond that, I guess I could say my current setup, by virtue of its reduced distortion, lower noise floor, and somewhat better controlled room, presents a "cleaner backdrop" for music. So to pick a somewhat random example, the poorly recorded drums and bass on Hendrix's Are You Experienced? album don't sound any worse, but they do sound a bit more underwhelming relative to some of the better recordings in my collection whose perceived quality has improved over time as my setup has improved.
 
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AMPaul

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I wanted to say that i didn't expect such a reaction to my initial post. Thank you guys. What i feel is a bit of a shame is that as my system improved my taste in music narrowed, and mostly by virtue of better mastering of albums and not by the fact that i began to dislike some music genres. i'm guessing audiophile doesn't equal music lover, more like good audio-lover.so much money invested and i end up with fewer choices that are to my liking. Or, maybe i just need several audio systems that play all kinds of recordings...hmmm more money.
 

DSJR

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I think the predilection here for absolutely ruthless professional monitors IS going to mean that bad recordings are reproduced and maybe even magnified by these monitors which after all, are only doing their job, putting faults under the microscope for the engineer to fix or mix out.

Domestic listening usually makes for a more relaxed and less edge-of-the-seat listening experience and I'm sure still even today, the compromises in tonal balance and design will favour a gentler, slightly less 'tense' presentation. I've mentioned before how so many speakers have slight response dips in the lower kHz region and I'm still certain that the designers put this there for good reason! One Danish maker's top-range speakers seem slightly 'up' at those frequencies and this, coupled with the taut bass and domestic passive crossover (no matter how sophisticated or 'posh' in components), can make for an impressive but to me, fatiguing long term listen.

I found over the years that the best systems I heard made bad recordings tolerable and the best became mind blowing, where less good systems made great recordings good and bad ones unlistenable.. The term 'musicality' is so badly abused and it's difficult for me to quantify, but well matched sympathetically compromised domestic audio systems do seem to bring the musical side out in any given recording without butchering the other aspects of good sound reproduction. Apologies if this comment is too subjective for some, but the reason we buy this stuff is hopefully to enjoy music and speech recordings - usually at home... Got to say now, the hobby side which ruled my life for so long has dissipated somewhat and any gear I buy in the future will have to do the job, rather than be an end in itself..
 

tmtomh

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I wanted to say that i didn't expect such a reaction to my initial post. Thank you guys. What i feel is a bit of a shame is that as my system improved my taste in music narrowed, and mostly by virtue of better mastering of albums and not by the fact that i began to dislike some music genres. i'm guessing audiophile doesn't equal music lover, more like good audio-lover.so much money invested and i end up with fewer choices that are to my liking. Or, maybe i just need several audio systems that play all kinds of recordings...hmmm more money.

Sorry you feel this way. The breadth of music I enjoy has only increased as I have upgraded my setup. There have been some growing pains as increased clarity and precision have revealed some aspects of speaker placement and room interactions that I needed to work on, so the improvement in the sonic experience was not entirely linear. But I found that helpful, because when I tweaked those factors to improve the problems I heard with some recordings, it benefitted the good recordings too.

As I noted above, the flaws in some recordings might become more evident relative to better-recorded bits, but those flaws have not in my experience actually become larger. Personally I don't feel that one needs multiple systems to enjoy different recordings or different kinds of music. If you do feel some recordings simply don't sound good on your system while most others do sound good, then high-quality EQ can help with those problematic recordings.

Bottom line, I can't get behind the concept of using an entire system as a giant EQ/tone control. I simply don't believe it's necessary.
 

Blaspheme

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You're written this twice. What on earth does 'slow' mean except as regards tempo?
If by "written this twice" you include 'questioned my observation in the second post' then sure.

A while back I took that trip down memory lane that we do sometimes. I was actually comparing to GNR with a couple of friends for whom the latter is formative. I'm older so GNR's ascent took place during my child-raising years—too busy listening to The Wiggles and Aqua—I literally couldn't recall a single song by them. Didn't help, my friends' taste isn't mine. They didn't like classic metal or modern post-hardcore much either. Also, level of drunkenness.

Despite the memory haze, I remained surprised by Sabbath openers—Sweet Leaf from Master of Reality and Wheels of Confusion from Vol.4—sounding so ... slo-mo. Compared to front-of-mind ~core from BMTH say. Anyway, following those posts here I did some revision/homework. Because you do. In tempo terms (so BPM for modern music) The Comedown is only 103 BPM per a common calculator. Surprise. What created my impression it was faster, or fast at all? The main riffage (chord progression) is faster than the aforenamed Sabbath tracks by my reckoning. But I think it's the sustained pace of the drumming. I assume there's terminology for whatever subdivision of beat is going on, so If there's a drummer or informed muso who can explain how this works, I'm all ears.

Sadly, no studio footage of that track by the band that I can see, but here's a competent/faithful reconstruction—watch the drummer's legs move—for reference:


Edit: Sweet Leaf in the studio. 148 BPM per calculator. It picks up the pace about three minutes in, and holds it for a minute:


Yeah, Ozzy may have done too many drugs. Oli was well on the way there, but took a breather. Anyway tell me what faster means to you?
 
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Wicky

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It's mainly the initial disappointment of scrolling back through your old favourites hoping they will sound fantastic on your new setup, then feeling a little underwhelmed when the recording is so obviously poor, expectation bias or whatever...

Still enjoy those tracks but just have to ignore that aspect of the music.

As others have commented, on the other side of the coin, It's helped me appreciate some new music that I might not have initially engaged with
 
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