Are You Happy?


On another currently running post a number of people have commented that the majority of their digital music collection is unlistenable. One person said 90% falls into this category. I don't get it! Have these people purposely assembled systems to make their favorite albums sound bad? Do they sit and audition equipment while thinking to themselves "hey, this is great, I won't be able to listen any of my Rolling Stones, but wow does it sound good." Why would someone do this to themselves?

As audiophile we are all a little crazy, but these people, IMHO, have gone one step beyond. Please help me to understand what's going on?
128x128onhwy61

Showing 1 response by bishopwill

Same old story, folks. Are you listening to the sound or are you listening to the music? The days when I find lots of my collection "unlistenable" is when I'm listening to the sound. When I'm listening to the music, I'm a lot more satisfied with my software. My own particular bugaboo is bad playing. I'm a lot more tolerant of poor engineering than of poor playing. That's poor old Chesky's problem. He makes wonderfully engineered recordings but (sometimes) can't spring for really good talent. THAT, to me, makes a recording unlistenable.

As to CDs versus LPs and tubes versus solid state devices, that's an easy call. A great many people enjoy the euphonious distortion introduced by analog reproduction techniques and vacuum tube amplification. More and more "audiophile" labels are mixing their digital releases to produce that sound.

(Ducking and running for cover.....)

Will