Speakers that are unforgiving of poor-quality recordings - is that a thing?

[Short38]

Great thread. For what it’s worth. My Homer Simpson Doh moment came after multiple trips to high, medium, and low end dealers trying to figure out why first violins on a particular classical recording sounded like doo doo. Listened to the recording on systems ranging from over $100k to systems at $2k. Interestingly to my ears there was about 0 difference in the sound of the recording across price points. Finally arrived at a happy place by understanding that It’s mostly the recording.

 

[Mr. Widget]

Interestingly to my ears there was about 0 difference in the sound of the recording across price points. Finally arrived at a happy place by understanding that It’s mostly the recording.

Try to find a really great piano recording... plenty of great piano performances, but the recordings that really do the instrument justice are pretty rare.

 

[tmtomh]

Great thread.

Agreed!

My experience has been that better speakers improve the sound across the board, and I have come to feel that there's a useful distinction to be made between "unforgiving" and "revealing."

My current speakers (Genelec 8351b with GLM) reveal more differences in soundstage width and depth cues across various recordings, because the speakers are capable of producing the perception of a wider and deeper soundstage than any other speakers I've previously owned. So they are quite revealing - but there's nothing "unforgiving" about the sound they produce or the improvement they lend to every recording I've listened to with them, even if the degree of improvement varies because of differences in the quality of the recordings.

 

[Short38]

Try to find a really great piano recording... plenty of great piano performances, but the recordings that really do the instrument justice are pretty rare.

Recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[fpitas]

An observation developing my speakers is that, if the track sounds bad on speakers but is OK on headphones, the speakers need work. Of course, some tracks are a bit of a sonic disaster even on headphones.