Until I moved into my new home with its high end custom listening room, my wife would not listen to flutes, piccolos, vibraphones or other high pitched sharp transient music. It hurt her hearing these. Now, with an extended and controlled frequency sound, she is not adverse to listening for extended periods to any type of music and sound. Yes, it's a high end system in an even higher end room. It supports the point that women are more sensitive to high frequencies, especially if there is a brightness to them (dozens of my male friends never had a problem in the old room).
It's peculiar that playing 78 rpm records translate in a room filling, full sound, as if there are no wall boundaries. Too often CD transfers have the sound compressed in the middle between the speakers and stacked rather than spread out. I also dislike early stereo recordings with hard left-right imaging, sometimes with a soloist in the middle. Despite my great affection for Contemporary jazz recordinsgs, this is the only aspect that I dislike about them. Many modern recordings, especially classical have the opposite problem of too deep a soundfield with mics set back in an auditorium or chamber music recorded in too large a hall.
It's peculiar that playing 78 rpm records translate in a room filling, full sound, as if there are no wall boundaries. Too often CD transfers have the sound compressed in the middle between the speakers and stacked rather than spread out. I also dislike early stereo recordings with hard left-right imaging, sometimes with a soloist in the middle. Despite my great affection for Contemporary jazz recordinsgs, this is the only aspect that I dislike about them. Many modern recordings, especially classical have the opposite problem of too deep a soundfield with mics set back in an auditorium or chamber music recorded in too large a hall.