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

[SeriousApple]

I got my system upgraded to more transparent speakers and better amp and i re listened some of my old (2000s- 1990s) songs that i thought i knew and many sound like crap, badly recorded etc... i'm a bit sad about this even though good recordings bring my listening experience to a whole new level.

did you feel the same?

I feel like becoming an audiophile takes a whole chunk of what i used to listen to and dumps it in the trash. and the songs are nice just badly recorded..

I'm talking digital streaming here (spotify premium).

new amps and speakers are garbage. Vintage equipment is where its at. If you want vintage like sound be ready to spend crazy money.

 

[concorde1]

Which would those be?

PM'd

 

[dasdoing]

imo when a bad system makes a bad recording better it is only coincidence.
a harsh recording will sound better on a system that has a rolloff in the HFs.
but put a dull recording on the same system. it makes the bad worse

 

[redshift]

In a roundabout way it highlights how needed the work of places like ASR truly is. Apparently half the mixing engineers in the world have hot garbage for studio monitors.

I just try to enjoy the good songs more to compensate.

I’d likely think that the recording of the song is performed by amateurs using a setting and with equipment that is flaming hot garbage. Stuff like manhandled instruments, mics, wobbly stands and acquired in shit rooms with all sorts of nasty stuff, reverbations, cancellations, going on. On top of that, shit musicians with a knack for suck.

I’ll bet studio engineers must cringe at some of the stuff that gets produced in the garages and overhyped studios. Garbage in, garbage out.

 

[Plcamp]

The music that sounds much better, and that I used to reject, far exceeds those that disappoint in my experience.

 

[MRC01]

Upgrading to more transparent components, good recordings sound great but bad recordings sound really bad. ...

Yep. The more transparent your audio system is, the more it reveals the recordings themselves without stamping its own signature on top of them, the more different your recordings will sound. The good ones sound even better, the bad ones sound even worse. You will also notice differences that are neither "better" nor "worse", just different.

To the original question: yes, this can be disappointing with some recordings. Of course, for others it sounds better which is nice. Either way, a more transparent system will reveal something new in most of your music.

 

[tmtomh]

I got my system upgraded to more transparent speakers and better amp and i re listened some of my old (2000s- 1990s) songs that i thought i knew and many sound like crap, badly recorded etc... i'm a bit sad about this even though good recordings bring my listening experience to a whole new level.

did you feel the same?

I feel like becoming an audiophile takes a whole chunk of what i used to listen to and dumps it in the trash. and the songs are nice just badly recorded..

I'm talking digital streaming here (spotify premium).

One other thought/memory occurred to me that I thought I'd mention. Don't know if this resonates with you at all, but just in case:

There are definitely some beloved recordings of mine that have a different overall feel to them now that my system has lower noise, less distortion, and (as far as I know) greater frequency linearity than it used to; and now that my room is larger and has (again as far as I know) better control of resonances and such. One example is Led Zeppelin II. I mention this album because the recording is full of distortion - intentional distortion on the guitar, bass, drums (sometimes), and theremin; distortion on the mic preamp; distortion from the ancient tube equipment they were using to record and mix it; distortion from the tape bleed between tracks; and distortion from tape overload all over the place.

When played on the version of my system I had 5-7 years ago, in my previous, smaller room, I was less conscious of all this distortion. Of course I could hear it, and I could pick out the likely source of any particular moment of distortion if I wanted to. But the entire album sounded like a cohesive, organic whole, especially tracks with loud/intense parts like Whole Lotta Love, Heartbreaker, and Bring It On Home. And the music just filled the small room I was in, sometimes feeling bigger than the room (even though the actual L-R soundstage was not wider than the room and the soundstage depth was not great).

Now with my current setup and room, music has greater soundstage depth, width, and precision, and greater clarity. But this album/recording itself sounds nearly as distorted as it did before, because the distortion of the recording was by far the majority of the distortion I was hearing before. So now it's sort of like taking an old, worn but beloved photograph and putting it in a brand new frame with clear glass. The old photo (the music) has become larger, but the frame (the room) is larger still. So the music is still wonderful - but there's a much clearer difference between the distortion of the recording and the clean, dead-silent backdrop of my system. And while the music is big and deep, it no longer feels like it can outgrow the room.

Now, for me, none of this is bad - in fact, it's more exciting to me because I can hear so much more. But, I also have other music, which is more modern and better recorded, which previously would never sound quite as big as Zeppelin, but which now does, albeit in a different way.

So I can see how some of one's favorite music might lose some of its exceptional, magical qualities that might have made it unique or a total sonic standout before.

I don't know if any of the above makes sense to you (or anyone else). But I thought I'd give it a try.

 

[Robin L]

One other thought/memory occurred to me that I thought I'd mention. Don't know if this resonates with you at all, but just in case:

There are definitely some beloved recordings of mine that have a different overall feel to them now that my system is (as far as I know) has lower noise, less distortion, and (as far as I know) greater frequency linearity than it used to; and now that my room is larger and has (again as far as I know) better control of resonances and such. One example is Led Zeppelin II. I mention this album because the recording is full of distortion - intentional distortion on the guitar, bass, drums (sometimes), and theremin; distortion on the mic preamp; distortion from the ancient tube equipment they were using to record and mix it; distortion from the tape bleed between tracks; and distortion from tape overload all over the place.

When played on the version of my system I had 5-7 years ago, in my previous, smaller room, I was less conscious of all this distortion. Of course I could hear it, and I could pick out the likely source of any particular moment of distortion if I wanted to. But the entire album sounded like a cohesive, organic whole, especially tracks with loud/intense parts like Whole Lotta Love, Heartbreaker, and Bring It On Home. And the music just filled the small room I was in, sometimes feeling bigger than the room (even though the actual L-R soundstage was not wider than the room and the soundstage depth was not great).

Now with my current setup and room, music has greater soundstage depth, width, and precision, and greater clarity. But this album/recording itself sounds nearly as distorted as it did before, because the distortion of the recording was by far the majority of the distortion I was hearing before. So now it's sort of like taking an old, worn but beloved photograph and putting it in brand new frame with clear glass. The old photo (the music) has become larger, but the frame (the room) is larger still. So the music is still wonderful - but there's a much clearer difference between the distortion of the recording and the clean, dead-silent backdrop of my system. And while the music is big and deep, it no longer feels like it can outgrow the room.

Now, for me, none of this is bad - in fact, it's more exciting to me because I can hear so much more. But, I also have other music, which is more modern and better recorded, which previously would never sound quite as big as Zeppelin, but which now does, albeit in a different way.

So I can see how some of one's favorite music might lose some of its exceptional, magical qualities that might have made it unique or a total sonic standout before.

I don't know if any of the above makes sense to you (or anyone else). But I thought I'd give it a try.

For about a year I was using a Scott 299B integrated with small RBH tower speakers, a Strathclyde 305M turntable, SME type III arm, Shure 97xE cartridge. Worked better than anything else I've owned [before or since] with Frank Sinatra grey-label Capitol mono LPs.

 

[khrisr]

In a past life I used to be a guitarist in a rock band. As I got older I gravitated towards jazz, classical and electronic. I have a good but not high end system which I recently upgraded by buying speakers that cost about the same as the entire previous system. Here are some (completely subjective) impressions I got -

1. A raw sounding music video of a band recorded in a garage gave me a sense of “that sounds more like a real guitar”. All the improvements in finer details reproduced made it sound like a guitarist playing in a small garage which brought back memories.

2. On rehasing virtuoso guitar albums that I had spent countless hours listening to in the past I found acoustic guitar sounds much much improved … but not so the electric guitars. In general acoustic instrument based music seems to be enhanced the most. I guess this is because analogue sounds have a lot more depth to be revealed vs highly processed and distorted sounds?

3. In general, the more sparse the music the better it sounds to my ears. I got into jazz in a big way when I got my first hifi system. I remember vividly how this all started listening to the saxophone solo in “Us and them” by Pink Floyd. Is this because the more the number of instruments played simultaneously the more the demands made on the speaker reducing the upper limit of how well it can reproduce? Or maybe with sparse music your ears can pay more attention to individual sounds so you get the full impact of better reproduction vs having it averaged out?

4. For music that sounds worse on certain speakers I’d imagine there could in theory be a digital calibration system that captures what the recording engineer heard and recalibrate your own system to sound similar. Or maybe there can be presets to tailor the sound to fit the constraints of a typical bluetooth boom box or say a stereo from the 60s if that is indeed what the recording was optimized for.

5. I still have music that I much prefer listening to in my car driving down a twisty canyon road. There is still electronic music with compositions that can bring on an adrenaline rush making the quality of reproduction almost irrelevant. The subjective impact far outweighs in those cases. More adrenaline … less pre-frontal cortex (or wherever the serious music part of the brain is)

 

[NYfan2]

I know that I really enjoy a high quality transparent system. Good recordings sound so amazing that I accept that crap recordings sound crap.

I also make a difference between good recorded music and music that I enjoy, if it's both I'm very happy but a lot of the music that I enjoy is recorded pretty bad ( I love the heavy genres like trash metal, death metal, hardcore etc.) so often I put in iem's connected to my phone and stream the music will I'm doing chores around the house then the quality of the recording is less relevant while I'm enjoying the music.

 

[daftcombo]

No. If your favorite songs sound like crap on your hi-end system, it is because it is not a good system, whatever $$$ you paid for it.

 

[JJB70]

A lot of music I listen to is old stuff recorded in the 40's and 50's and it doesn't need a good system to reveal technical deficiencies in recording quality, but I don't find it to matter and it certainly doesn't prevent me from enjoying great performances.

 

[Brianc]

My misspent youth had a soundtrack dominated by 80s thrash metal, hardcore punk, and some classic rock. A few years ago, doing research for a still unfinished YA novel, I listened to a lot of this music I used to love. I listened mostly on good quality headphones, while as a teenager I wouldn't have had even Koss level quality. Much of this music was poorly recorded and is obviously so now. But some still sounds really good (Metallica's Master of Puppets for one). Some of it has been remastered, even some of the more obscure stuff (the first 3 Destruction albums sounded much better than I remembered). The common denominator with almost all of these is the lack of bass compared to modern albums. But the more important common denominator is my own listening history. I've moved on from this music, and have heard many recordings that make my early tastes sound primitive. It's hard not to hear the flaws now.
Edit: I forgot to mention that during my research I occasionally listened on some cheap JVC on-ears, which are much more comparable to what I used as a teenager, and generally they sounded better with the poorly recorded stuff than my good headphones did (I actually think the smaller on ear drivers sound better with fast music often times).

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

i think the BBC dip help a lot to the crap recording... i do that in my headphone and my tower

 

[b4nt]

Edit: I forgot to mention that during my research I occasionally listened on some cheap JVC on-ears, which are much more comparable to what I used as a teenager, and generally they sounded better with the poorly recorded stuff than my good headphones did (I actually think the smaller on ear drivers sound better with fast music often times).

Maybe try also with a more or less recent little boom box. Or any vintage mono solution.

Recording methods and electronics have changed. And I beleive a lot of masterings where and still are done to meet most popular demands, needs also (audible in a car, on any little radio, using cheap PC speakers or 100-16k ear plugs).

 

[tuga]

If you can't enjoy listening to your favourite music with your current system then you should address the cause, not start listening to well recorded music that you don't like.
Audiophile recordings sound good but more often than not the music is rubbish.

Fidelity is a glorious goal to have but at the end of the day the purpose of the playback system is to provide listening enjoyment.

 

[thewas]

I would also like to quote Floyd Toole there:

If a "target' curve has been achieved, and the sound quality is not satisfactory, the suggestion is often to go into the menu, find the manual adjustment routine, and play around with the shape of the curve until you or your customer like the sound. This is not a calibration. This is a subjective exercise in manipulating an elaborate tone control. Once set it is fixed, and in it will be reflected timbral features of the music being listened to at the time. In other words, the circle of confusion is now included in the system setup. By all means do it, but do not think that the exercise has been a "calibration". Old fashioned bass & treble tone controls and modern "tilt" controls are the answer and they can be changed at will to compensate for personal taste and excesses or deficiencies in recordings. Sadly, many "high end" products do not have tone controls - dumb. It is assumed that recordings are universally "perfect" - wrong!

Source and more: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ut-room-curve-targets-room-eq-and-more.10950/

 

[Snarfie]

Lots of them especially when i changed to a more ore less high-end setup already many years ago. It basically it shows the decision that where made during mastering. As an example Al Stewart-Year of the Cat the bass is so thin mids high are more or less dominating to much. Lovely album but the sound really sucks however in the car it is not that bad. I wonder is that one of the reason we try to compensate our sound with target curves an sub-woofers. Room Correction did for me a better job since using RC I don't need a sub woofer anymore. An lots of older songs sound better now (but far from perfect).

 

[b4nt]

I do have a sub and will keep it. It doens't really move for more than 1% of my tracks. Some only contain bass. I didn't add it to compensate, but to extend the FR of bookshelfs.

Main problem I have in my car, since I have a SD card slot: I cannot listen fine mastered tracks (including some pop tracks) cause the noise covers part of the lover levels of music.

 

[TulseLuper]

I would also like to quote Floyd Toole there:

If a "target' curve has been achieved, and the sound quality is not satisfactory, the suggestion is often to go into the menu, find the manual adjustment routine, and play around with the shape of the curve until you or your customer like the sound. This is not a calibration. This is a subjective exercise in manipulating an elaborate tone control. Once set it is fixed, and in it will be reflected timbral features of the music being listened to at the time. In other words, the circle of confusion is now included in the system setup. By all means do it, but do not think that the exercise has been a "calibration". Old fashioned bass & treble tone controls and modern "tilt" controls are the answer and they can be changed at will to compensate for personal taste and excesses or deficiencies in recordings. Sadly, many "high end" products do not have tone controls - dumb. It is assumed that recordings are universally "perfect" - wrong!

Source and more: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ut-room-curve-targets-room-eq-and-more.10950/

I'm grateful for the tone controls on my vintage preamp (Yamaha C-4). I also use Dirac and have multiple curves saved as presets on my miniDSP, but find the tone controls (which include knobs to select the frequency at which they work) to be simpler and effective when quick adjustments could be helpful for some recordings. I avoid overthinking it, and I listen to loads of junky recordings which do not bother me at all.