Now here's a topic related to the first article in this newsletter: Does it bother you to listen to poorly recorded/engineered music on your system? For example, we have a multi-disc Crosby, Stills and Nash compilation with recording quality that's mediocre at best. Very limited dynamic 

 

 

range, truncated bass and high frequencies, little in the way of soundstage or location clues. As much as we like the music, it annoys some of us to listen to it because it just sounds so bad. Yes, using a high quality system will deliver every iota of sound quality that's there but if you start with a poorly recorded source there's only so much great equipment can deliver. Some of us find that we listen to poorly recorded content less frequently than we do to "the good stuff".

 

Do You Enjoy Music More if it's Well Recorded?

 

Is that wrong-headed? Should we just live with mediocre recording quality because the enjoyment's in the music itself, not how well it's recorded? There's certainly something to be said for such an argument. Look at all the great music you'd miss if you only listened to the best recorded stuff available. On the other hand, you've probably spent a significant amount of time, energy and money building a high performance system. Bad recordings certainly aren't the highlight of listening on such a system to be sure. To some extent then, we suppose we're slaves to our audio passion.

 

Good Speakers Can Make Lesser Recordings Sound Their Best

 

One point about lesser recordings is that there is often a surprising amount of information there, that a good system and great speakers can help to bring out. This is well demonstrated when listening to early jazz recordings, for instance. Although not recorded with the clarity and dynamic range of classic fifties jazz recordings, not to mention more contemporary ones, many of the great recordings of Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington et al from the forties and even earlier can really come alive when played on a great system. And a smooth, natural sounding speaker will certainly help tame raucous recordings in a way that similarly raucous speakers will only exacerbate.

 

Potential Sources for Better Recordings

 

At this time there are lots of musical compilations and re-issues being released into the marketplace, probably in part due to the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. Some of these compilations are being re-mastered, hopefully for the better, some are simply copies from the original recording, and some are actually worse than the first issues. Fortunately the Internet can 

provide some guidance through online reviews as can music and audio magazine reviews. Still, it can be tough to know the sound quality you'll find on these recordings without listening to them.

 

If the original recording is idiosyncratic it may be the same on re-mastered versions. For example, one of our favorite albums is Cat Stevens "Tea for the Tillerman". We have the original USA vinyl release and the standard CD both of which we've always found to be somewhat "bright" or "forward" sounding. There have been many re-issues of this album, some in HD formats, and recently we've seen several reviewed. These re-issue reviews all mention exactly the same brightness characteristic even though they may offer praise for the overall improvement in sound quality. Now, we're not suggesting that buying HD downloads or re-issues is a total "crap shoot" but there's no absolute guarantee that the sound quality will be better compared to the original.

 

HD Music is on the Rise