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Some recordings come to life on full range gear vs limited range?!

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Robbo99999

Robbo99999

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YES, that was the point. :) Re: the thread title.
Some recordings DO NOT "come to life" on full-range gear vs. limited-range gear.

Robert Johnson's legendary (and legendarily limited) recorded output falls into the same category, albeit for somewhat different reasons, even after meticulous restoration in the modern era.
Ha, ok, I'm glad you clarified that, because for a while I thought you were extolling the benefits of playing that track on full range gear! It's good that we have a bit of a consensus in this thread, as it helps to realise our experiences/ears & systems aren't off!
 
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Robbo99999

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mhardy6647

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Ha, ok, I'm glad you clarified that, because for a while I thought you were extolling the benefits of playing that track on full range gear! It's good that we have a bit of a consensus in this thread, as it helps to realise our experiences/ears & systems aren't off!
In full disclosure, your posts did lead me to realize that I'd managed to completely misinterpret the thrust of the thread! :confused: I was first and foremost thinking of tracks that explicitly wouldn't benefit from extremely high quality reproduction... which there "definitely" (IMO, at any rate) are! ;)

In terms of the actual question -- there are many tracks that do benefit from better reproduction capability. The low-bass content (is it real or "juiced"? I don't know) of many modern (1990s to present) recordings is only apparent with some fairly prodigious LF extension and output.

A good example, for me, is Patty Larkin's Beg To Differ -- which has this low (synthesized, I presume?) whoompf in it after the first verse punctuating some of the lines that's pretty amazing... but completely lacking with many smaller loudspeakers. :)

I have no idea if it'll reproduce from a YT soundtrack (I am guessing no), but here's the song FWIW.


I quite like Patty Larkin, and this song, as an aside.
 

kongwee

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Physically for a full range sound your speaker gonna be a tower with single big woofer or multiple smaller ones. It will make a small violin sound big. Really sound better than just monitor at the same premium range. The amount of sound wave come at you. Of course, there are other factor like room size and price to deter you to own a tower.
 
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Robbo99999

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In full disclosure, your posts did lead me to realize that I'd managed to completely misinterpret the thrust of the thread! :confused: I was first and foremost thinking of tracks that explicitly wouldn't benefit from extremely high quality reproduction... which there "definitely" (IMO, at any rate) are! ;)

In terms of the actual question -- there are many tracks that do benefit from better reproduction capability. The low-bass content (is it real or "juiced"? I don't know) of many modern (1990s to present) recordings is only apparent with some fairly prodigious LF extension and output.

A good example, for me, is Patty Larkin's Beg To Differ -- which has this low (synthesized, I presume?) whoompf in it after the first verse punctuating some of the lines that's pretty amazing... but completely lacking with many smaller loudspeakers. :)

I have no idea if it'll reproduce from a YT soundtrack (I am guessing no), but here's the song FWIW.


I quite like Patty Larkin, and this song, as an aside.
Nice track, I've just been listening to it on my HD560s headphones (without EQ) and I'm not totally getting the "whoompf" you mentioned although the bass does seem to increase after the beginning of the song, I think there's a large drum of somekind being used in it that is only very faintly coming through but the bass is not totally linear without EQ though on these headphones.......I'll try listening to it on my speakers & sub to see if it kicks in (I'll edit the post later).

But no, you've not misinterpreted the thread, there are no strict rules in this thread - you can show content that benefits full range transparent systems vs also showing stuff that doesn't benefit and stuff that could even be better on less full range less transparent systems (the AM radios & jukeboxes that were mentioned earlier).

EDIT: listened to it with my speakers & sub. Bass came through a touch more. I'd say that it might just be a kick drum that's being played at a low volume, and maybe there's some low rumble at 30Hz'ish that is being added electronically from time to time, but I'm not sure on that...the bass guitar plays really quite low in that track at times, so that adds to the bass element in that track. Overall, I couldn't say it's a bass heavy track (but I appreciate it you didn't mean it like that), I didn't quite get the "whoompf" you mentioned but I've done my best to explain what I think it might be. By the way, I'm not a musician, far from it, so from that point of view it's probably not a strong point of mine in identifying the names of specific instruments or drums.
 
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Timcognito

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That's just regarding Vinyl right? That point aside, do you think the list is rubbish or it has merit in identifying technically good recordings? I'm not entirely sure what the brief is behind that list?
Yes its for LPs, but the master for a CD, SACD, etc. is most often the same. The list is Absolute Sounds compendium of best sounding recordings. If one has Qobuz where all titles are in CD or HiRes quality one can pick a few in genres or artists that a appeal to them and see if they sound great. Other than that there are the best recording labels and one can view their catalogs.
Also, on on the Steve Hoffman forum there are big debates over best of recordings but like ASR you are at mercy of some know it all posters.
 
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