greater resolution as an end in itself ??


having responded to a thread in the "digital" section concerning the ps audio perfect wave transport and dac combination, stimulated thoughts about resolution.

i own the ps audio combination alluded to above, as well as older cd players. i have compared my personal cd players with the ps audio combo and find that the older players are more forgiving, whil the ps audio combo seems to exhibit greater resolutionj.

it is my hypothesis that greater resolution, while possibly "improving" the sound of well-recorded cds, makes poor recordings sound worse.
thus, is greater resolution a boon or a bane ?
mrtennis

Showing 1 response by plato

I think there's a lot more to it than what appears on the surface. What many folks equate with "greater resolution" is simply tilted up or peaky treble response. There are also cable and component combinations that together produce a kind of hyper-detailed, but not musically accurate or satisfying sound. Then there are room nodes, reflections, and cancellations to deal with -- not to mention things like failure to ensure clean power to your component chain (which has it's own set of undesireable effects).

In any given system, there are varying degrees of all of the above (and more). But I suppose it's easiest just to put a label like "too resolving" on it and/or assign blame to the offending recording(s), and call it a day...