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Recording Limited?

After several upgrades to my system, I am converging on an opinion which will be finally determined after tweaking my cables: I am recording limited with my playback system.

Specifically, the primary 'quality' differences I am hear are driven by the recording. First, I am sure my choice of source material - Redbook CD - is a key limiting factor. Second, the recording (room, mikes, etc.) and mixing decisions (stereo, mono, various compressions, etc.) are quite obvious. Thus, the primary differences in tone, soundstaging, imaging, blah, blah, blah... which so many of us get hung up about are now limited by my input (garbage in, garbage out ;-).

Interesting.

This brings up a few thoughts (in no particular order):

- Why spend more on a system? (while not cheap, my system is hardly high-end when judged against the monster systems I see in this forum)

- After this point, I am playing a game which deviates from neutral, accurate playback. I would be picking components which accentuate (or mask) certain tonal, dynamic, or imaging aspects of the recording. Why would I want to do this?

- Is this the pathetic last gasp before launching into the lunacy of vinyl? :-)

- There is more than enough fidelity here for me to close my eyes and feel the soul of a recording; after this point, am I missing the point of high fidelity playback?

I'm curious if others have confronted this plateau and what decisions they made; mostly, did you accept your system or move on to another goal? And if the latter, what were your results? Are you happy?

Thanks,
mprime

Showing 2 responses by mprime

mprime OP
92 posts
 
No criticism taken, Lug. Really, when I ponder vinyl, I see it as ideal for Classical & Jazz - particularly the latter (if I'm going to listen to mono or a hard R/L stereo mix, then I want that sucka to be smooooth).

And you bring up an interesting term: "pure audiophile." When I ponder it, I can see how increasing the quality of the playback will increase the fidelity of the recording -- for certain recordings. But if I were to limit my input set to only those recordings, then I would be circumscribing my experience: which I do not want to do. Moreover, *many* of the audiophile recordings I have listend to (e.g. Mapleshade) are marginal performances; they may be contrasted (unfavorably, from my view) to lesser recordings of superior performances.

I really don't want to reduce my musical envelope.

Best,
mprime OP
92 posts
 
Metra: thanks for the Steve Hoffman recomendation.

Rock: thanks for the advice.

Nighthawk: you're correct, I am missing the bottom octave. Typically, I say I don't miss it, but that's not entirely true, for when I listen to Ma or Mingus, there is a weight absent from the playback. That gets me thinking about integrating a sub, so thanks a million for that brain splinter!

Then again, maybe I can just let it go....

Best,
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