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'Unlistenable' early digital recordings?

Obviously, today’s engineering of digital masters is far superior than the early years. Some say that many CD’s from the early years are ’unlistenable’. I used to agree. But, over the past couple of years, I’ve spent considerable effort to clean up the power to each of my digital components. Now, early CD’s are quite listenable. They might not be ’audiophile quality’ but the music comes across just fine. No more digital nasties. No more glare or etch in the HF. No more excessive boominess in the LF. I’m definitely a clean power convert. So much so, that I recommend cleaning up the power before upgrading to a new DAC. What’s your experience?

steakster
mwinkc
387 posts
 
I have the Bop til you drop LP and my old ears like the detail and dynamic range.
Are you saying that it was recorded digitally or were you referring to the CD version?
Just curious.. my hearing fades out as low as 9500 hz these days....not sure what I'm missing.  :-(
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Have a listen Daryl Hall & John Oates "Abandoned Luncheonette"
Atlantic 7567-81537-2 German pressing, it will blow you away.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Abandoned-Luncheonette-Daryl-Hall-John-Oates-CD-1990-Atlantic/153505779358?epid=3098740&hash=item23bda84e9e:g:xagAAOSwx6Fc7aIi

Cheers George
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
When Bop Till you Drop came out on LP it was one of the first digital recordings. IIRC the CD sounds very similar to the LP.

From wikipedia,

“Bop Till You Drop is Ry Cooder’s eighth album, released in 1979. The album was the first digitally recorded major-label album in popular music. Bop Till You Drop was recorded on a digital 32-track machine built by 3M.”
rbstehno
1,631 posts
 
A sh$tty recording is going to produce sh$tty sound. A good recording with a crappy dac and you will get crappy sound. Put a good quality power cord or interconnect on a crappy dac is like putting lipstick on a pig. A good dac will benefit from good cables to get the best SQ out of it. 
I also agree that a lot of old rock recordings have little bass. Blues and jazz recordings didn’t have this issue.
ptss
1,965 posts
 
@steakster.  You are ansolutey right. Cleaning AC power allows the beauty of early CDs to come through. Particularly “isolation” of the ac power to the digital from the analog components. I’m fortunate to have refined Spectral Audio and MIT I/cs and ac power cords and every improvement to ac isolation is clearly audible. I use isolation transformers and Equitech balanced power to both digital and analog to wonderful effect. There can’t be too much isolation! As well, there’s no “digital noise” that went into the recording process. The old CDs are clean. 
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