Good tunes ruined by better gear.

[Cruise Missile]

Has anyone here had favorite tunes ruined by listening to them on a good system?

I know that a good system enhances the listening experience with a good recording.
But so much of the music today is so over-compressed and poorly recorded.

I just hate hearing a song when I'm out, enough to go buy it, and get home to find that there's too much bass, compressed vocals, no dynamic range ect..

 

[Djizasse]

Yes I've had. But on the upside, I also re-discovered some others than gained a new life

 

[stratman]

This usually happens when you upgrade to better speakers. It's happened to me quite a few times over the years. I have a friend that hated to listen to my 2.0 rig, he said when he got home his CDs sounded horrible.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

Has anyone here had favorite tunes ruined by listening to them on a good system?

I know that a good system enhances the listening experience with a good recording.
But so much of the music today is so over-compressed and poorly recorded.

I just hate hearing a song when I'm out, enough to go buy it, and get home to find that there's too much bass, compressed vocals, no dynamic range ect..

Yeah, Everytime I hear a new rock CD that I like. Why oh why can't rock musicians understand what the heck sound quality is and how it can make their music even better?

 

[Davemcc]

I think I know what you're talking about. I don't listen to certain things anymore. Off the top of my head, I can't listen to AC/DC or Skynyrd on my main system. It just seems too harsh through a good set of speakers like my Dynaudio, especially if I try to play it loud. I don't find this effect on the Era D5. The Era are perfectly suited to that type of music. I kind of think that that kind of music was intended to be played on somewhat forgiving speakers, cheap head-banger speakers or factory car systems where they sound pretty good.

 

[Sheep]

Has anyone here had favorite tunes ruined by listening to them on a good system?

I know that a good system enhances the listening experience with a good recording.
But so much of the music today is so over-compressed and poorly recorded.

I just hate hearing a song when I'm out, enough to go buy it, and get home to find that there's too much bass, compressed vocals, no dynamic range ect..

All those things listed would be noticeable on any stereo. Too much bass? Turn it down.

SheepStar

 

[Jack Hammer]

I've recently listened to some older recordings that I used to love how they sounded years ago with my old crappy setup. Now I hear just how crappy the recording really was to begin with.

It really makes you appreciate classical music.

Jack

 

[3db]

Has anyone here had favorite tunes ruined by listening to them on a good system?

I know that a good system enhances the listening experience with a good recording.
But so much of the music today is so over-compressed and poorly recorded.

I just hate hearing a song when I'm out, enough to go buy it, and get home to find that there's too much bass, compressed vocals, no dynamic range ect..

yes and thats why I'm going back to vinyl

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Yes. No matter how good a CD is in terms of content, it doesn't stay in my collection if the sound quality is not up to snuff. This may be part of the reason I tend to focus on jazz and new age, which are usually very well recorded. (There are exceptions. My new Charlie Hunter CD has too much bass.)
There are a lot of older recordings that I can't listen to unless they have been (well) remastered. There are others that I can't stand at all anymore (eg early Aerosmith.)

 

[Cruise Missile]

No kidding. You spend all this time and money to build a system with a flat response, and then discover that the music was meant to be heard in a car or on a clock radio.
Sheep, I shouldn't have to turn down the bass to like a song. I am a bass pig! When deep powerfull bass is done right it puts a huge grin on my face. I just can't stand when it muddies up the recording.
My taste in music is best described as "anything that sounds good". Unfortunately even as all encompassing as that is, it is begining to limit what I can stand on my set-up. Funny thing though, I still jam those songs in the car.
The other problem with it is the louder is better mentality with the recording studios. I absolutly can't stand when a singer's mixed at +0db and begins to sound as if my amp is clipping.
I am glad to see that I'm not the only one being annoyed by this.

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

I discovered that the Weird Al "Straight Outta Lynwood" sounds fine on the car stereo and it sounded OK on my old stereo, but on my new receiver, it sounds overdriven. In fact, it causes the receiver to give "Peak" warnings, like the engineer had all the dials set to max.

 

[MinusTheBear]

A couple of bands I like use Pro Tools|HD a lot when recording an album. They do a mix of analog and digital in their recordings. Every album I have listened too that I knew used Pro Tools in some way the sound quality was always really good and I could tell it was really well engineered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Tools

 

[Pyrrho]

Has anyone here had favorite tunes ruined by listening to them on a good system?

I know that a good system enhances the listening experience with a good recording.
But so much of the music today is so over-compressed and poorly recorded.

I just hate hearing a song when I'm out, enough to go buy it, and get home to find that there's too much bass, compressed vocals, no dynamic range ect..

I have not had that problem. I sometimes even listen to very old recordings (e.g., Caruso), played back through my expensive ribbon tweeters. The recording quality is less than ideal, but it would not be a better recording if played back on a crappy system.

Anyway, for your specific problem, you might want to listen to new music on your home stereo (via radio, or connected to your computer for Internet samples) before you buy. That way, you hear it on your home system before you part with your money for it.

Or, you can just get rid of your current system, and buy a crappy one, if that is what will make you happy.

 

[Cruise Missile]

I'm definately not saying that everything sucks, in fact I am constantly fnding stuff I love. It just seems that so much of music today is over produced.
Last summer I went to the Family Values tour. I saw Evanesence there, They sound GREAT live. They have an energy to them live that is effectively produced out of their albums. It is as if a different band records in the studio than the one that tours. Yes I know live music sounds "different", but this was more than that. They actually were heavier live, I thought it rocked. So I bought the cd... and it didn't even sound like the same group.

 

[Djizasse]

A couple of bands I like use Pro Tools|HD a lot when recording an album. They do a mix of analog and digital in their recordings. Every album I have listened too that I knew used Pro Tools in some way the sound quality was always really good and I could tell it was really well engineered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Tools

I disagree with you. It's not the tools. A good mix and mastering can be had with protools, cubase, logic, reason, whatever. Blame it on the engineer.

But some times it not even the mix/mastering engineer's fault. We are living in the "my music is louder than yours" times... Compression must be the most (mis)used effect today. But people perceive louder as better and tend to buy it, if you want your album to sell, it must be loud.

Add to this, the fact that most people listen to music with somewhat inferior equipment (ex: MP3 player with crappy headphones, TV speakers) that cannot portray the subtle dynamics and carefull placement of "EQued" sounds in the stereo fied. Then, it will be easy to realize that most music will be made to be heard in those limited equipments.

 

[Biggiesized]

A couple of bands I like use Pro Tools|HD a lot when recording an album. They do a mix of analog and digital in their recordings. Every album I have listened too that I knew used Pro Tools in some way the sound quality was always really good and I could tell it was really well engineered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Tools

Actually, Pro Tools is pretty standard in the industry. It has destroyed more albums than it has enhanced.

 

[MinusTheBear]

I was not trying to say if you use pro tools you are going to have a good recording by all means, the others you mentioned are just fine. I totally agree, it is all in the engineers hands. If the album is poorly produced, engineered and mixed, no matter what tools are used, the recording is going to be crap. The same producer, engineer, mixer (all done by the same person) did all these albums I was referring to in the use of pro tools and the albums done by him always sounded great. Maybe I have to listen to some other recordings done by different people.