The WORST Components for Rock and Pop Music

With out a sub...no dipoles I've ever listened to sound as good as big old monopole boxes kicking out bass heavy rock music.

While dipole bass sounds more correct, ie... (has better tone) to my ear...I still prefer big cone bass for rock.

The reason for this (my cone bass preference for rock) is in the way the two load the room.

This is why I run two very large subwoofers with my Apogees even though the Apogees are nearly fullrange (27hz) and will play at high spl's...(two of the things needed for a good rock speaker)...they all (dipoles) fail the Maxell "blown-away guy" test. The exceptions being some of the hybrid designs (the Gilmore speakers come to mind).

All that said: "The WORST Components for Rock and Pop Music"

Bookshelf speakers, the B&W's I used to own come to mind.
Amps, the SAE amps I used to own
Preamp, again...SAE
cd players...almost all of them!

Dave

Some old rock cd's sound best when played back on boom boxes, A remaster of some of these older cd's does help sometimes.

Sometimes the album (vinyl) sounds wonderful, god only knows what happened in the cd transfer?

I still own my old VMPS Supertower/R's...one of the best rock speakers ever, IMO...however, they will not take a cd with a bass freq response of 100hz at best, and a screechy hi-end and turn it into something it's not.

I have read that some "members systems" can do this, I have never listened to a system that can do this with my own ears however....short of my boombox..... which sounds pretty much the same with all music. (I think it's the pair of 4" speakers and the mega-bass button :D) that converts these over?>

As far as the "Doors" cd's...most are recorded fairly well IMO, and should sound (at least good) on any speaker system. If they don't...somethings wrong somewhere.

Dave

Something along the lines of "Pink Floyd The Wall" or any other of the hundreds (maybe even thousands?) of well recorded rock albums... do sound good on any hi-end system that can playback at fairly high Spl's...most e-stats and planers can not do this except in small rooms.... all though their are a few exceptions.

I don't listen to a lot of rock music at this stage of my life but I do own lots of it...from "those" days.

I think Pink Floyd sounds as good as I've ever heard it "when I do play it" on my Apogee speakers/VMPS sub based system.

The problem is:

Most of the rock albums I own are from the 60's-80's...most, are not well recorded. They do sound ok in my truck and on my boom box because those two playback systems have a very limited freq range, ie....I don't expect much, so I just enjoy the music.

With our "big rigs" it can be somewhat hard to "just enjoy the music" when we.... "expect so much"

I will add that my 35 year old stepson is "very heavy" into rock. I have played back some of his music for him on my system...he was, as we like to say...BLOWN AWAY!

Most of the rock he listens to are bands that I know nothing about....tons of heavy bass and lots of screaming! I guess if I did enjoy his music (a good amount of beer did help)...I would enjoy it "more" on my system than his.

Dave

Audiofeil

My bad, I have a bad habit of saying albums...I should have said cd's.

I do have many old albums (Linn Axis Turntable)...I re-bought many albums "cd replacements" from those years because I thought at the time it was the way to go... (better sound forever) and all that. I still own many of those old cd transfers and this is mostly what I was talking about.

I do not own most of my old vinyl...gave it away?

I have all of the Supertramp and Alan Parsons stuff on both album and cd for instance...the albums are worlds better.

Note: In this case I re-bought the albums...I never play the cd's

I find the bass MIA, and the highs distorted on most of these old transfers to cd....not all.

In the end....it's all about recording quality regardless of format...a turd is, a turd... be it Classical, Rock, Country, Blues, ect.

Dave

Tvad

No I have not heard those, I would expect them to sound very good though!

I have an older "Classic Records" 24/96 DAD from a few years ago of the (I Robot) recording that sounds very good. The only other Alan Parsons I own (other than vinyl) is a DTS surround sound disc... (On Air}.

Dave