2. misc-audio
  3. 1189126700

How Many Of Us Are Compensating

No matter how elaborate, expensive or tweaked our systems get we are ultimately at the mercy of the sound quality of the music we purchase. The record producer, recording/mastering/duplicating engineers have set a hard limit on what can be retrieved from the recording media. Fortunately, the best recordings have a very high threshold as repeated equipment/set-up upgrades continue to discover additional levels of high fidelity sound. On the other hand, the average commercial recording can be quite pedestrian as far as sound quality goes. Over compressed, heavily EQ'd, non-existent soundstaging, etc... To what degree have you assembled your system and/or set it up in a way to compensate for the less than stellar sound quality of typical recordings? If you have "compensated", do you think what you did compromised the sound of the better made recordings?

As an example I have adjusted the toe-in of my speakers slightly more outward to avoid some objectionable upper midrange/lower treble hardness present on many modern recordings. Secondly, within the last year I've switched to a preamp with 7-band tone controls to deal with the really bad recordings.

BTW, I don't see compensating as a good or bad thing. I think it's far preferable to limiting what we listening to because it might not sound that good on our expensive toys.
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emailists
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I now run a biamped system using a remote controlled PS Audio GCC amp for the woofers (below 60 hz) just so I can dial in how much bass I need per recording and my listening level at the time.

I find bass is the most variable factor in a recording since it seems most mix systems/rooms have differents bass characteristics.

I am probably giving up some coherence in the bass by not have my MA-1s play full range, but the adjustability has brought a new level of satisfaction to my system (hey just like normal people's systems who have a bass tone control)

On my Harmony remote I have one rocker set for main volume, the other set for my H-cat's WTC control, while the inner small 4 way button has bass amp volume up/down, mute (just to hear it without the woofers) and phase of the woofer amp.

Very quickly per song I can dial in the perfect overall volume and just the right amount of bass to give it a nice foundation without muddying up the midrange.

Since I use Cerious liquid cables in most of the system, they are extremely natural and laid back. Who knows, I may in fact be giving up some ultimate air and extension, but everything sounds wonderful, with just the occasional trumpet being too piercing. WHen my system settles down I may experiment with different cables just to see.
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