Murph;219532 Wrote: > There are lots of things you can do to improve sound systems andimprove > room acoustics but there is also something that unfortunately you can't > fix. A bad engineered recording is simply a bad recording..... > > I can't say for sure, of course, that this is your issue but so many > sound engineers are over equalizing their recordings. It seemed to > start in the 80s with the sudden popularity of boombox style stereos. > The effect of loudness was king on a recording at the expense of > accuracy. > > The sad fact is that when you invest in truly accurate sound equipment, > it not only makes awesome recordings more awesome but it also presents > to you the realities of poor recordings that you might not have heard > before. On less accurate systems like Big Box store speakers and MP3 > players, the sound is not being produced accurately so it is more > 'forgiving' to poor recordings. > > This creates the irony that many CDs actually sound better on lower end > sound equipment than they do on audiophile gear. Same with MP3s. You > may find that your compressed music that used to sound great on your > MP3 player, now sounds crappy on your expensive speakers. Kind of a > conundrum because you can now hear what is not there. > > I'm no audiophile, golden ear myself but here are two CDs I use to > demonstrate this which will be obvious to anyone.. > > Evanesence - Fallen > Dire Straights - Brothers in Arms. > > Play both CDs on an average sound system or MP3 player. Odds are that > Dire Straights will sound a bit better, because it is. It is one of > the better engineered CDs out there. Evanescence will still sound very > good. The cutting edge vocals blast into your ears as do the hard > hitting riffs. Both have very dramatic sounds in many songs. That's > why I chose them. > > Now, if you have access to such, play both on a much more accurate > system. Doesn't have to be in the 10s of thousands of dollars range. > Just speakers know for their 'proven' accuracy and flat frequency > response. > > Now if the speakers are set up well, Brothers in Arms suddenly becomes > simply amazing. You don't just hear clarity in stereo but a whole > virtual sound stage opens around you. You hear notes and noises you > didn't even know existed in the music. > > Play Evanescence and very quickly, disappointment sets in. Amy Lee's > powerful vocals should be stunning but they are not. They are blandly > mixed in with the rest of the instrument noises. What should be > emotional peaks in the music now all sound the same. It's like every > sound is blended together at exactly the same level...... because it > is. You turn it louder to make it sound better but it just leads to > more disappointment. > > If you turned them into MP3s, it gets even worse. Highs become lost or > tinny, lows become feint or fuzzy. Being able to concentrate on any > particular instrument that is not forefront becomes difficult. > > Anyways, my apologies for the long rant. I'm not disagreeing with the > other posters at all, just taking this opportunity to flame sound > engineers who fell into the 'loudness' trap and are making recordings > that punish those of us who are able to hear how they truly recorded > it. > > It might also explain why your more 'neutral' speakers are making this > CD sound worse than the speakers your higher end speakers.
Murph: That wasn't a rant, that was a very good explanation! Regarding the quest for loudness on CDs, somehwere (I don't recall if it was on these forums), was an interesting link to a Youtube video that showed the effects of compression on CDs. The negative impact it had on dynamics was pretty dramatic. -- Videodrome Two-channel System: SB3 -> Behringer SRC2496 -> Musiland MD-10 DAC; Outlaw 970 Pre/Pro; McCormack DNA-125 amplifier; Quad 11L speakers; Sota Sapphire ttbl. w/ Grado Ref. Platinum Cartridge -> Rolls Bellari VP-129 tube phono stage; Marantz 10b; Nakamichi RX505; Cables Used: DH Labs, Van den Hul, Distech, Monster, many more. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Videodrome's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11727 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=37313 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
