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mystery muffled mids

I have a year-old setup I enjoy very much. B&W D3 805s and Hegel H590. Sound is really great. Imagining fantastic. every second with it is pleasure until I try to play classic rock. Anything by Led Zeppelin sounds like someone has smushed the sound and it lost the mid range, imagining disappears. I tried playing louder but live with too many people around to be able to do that constantly. And it did not improve anything noticably. 
I normally stream from Tidal via Audirvana. Anything by Bill Frisell, for instance, sounds phenomenal. You feel you can grab the instrument from the air. I mention this since he uses similar instruments to Zeppelin. Bowie's stuff sounds awful, as does Queen. I know they should sound better. Kind of Blue is fantastic. Gaucho, Sea Change, Elephunk, Wildfloflowers, Know what I mean? -- all great. To a friend, I said that this means bad recordings sound bad. The friend said that's not it. what do you say? How can I improve the sound? thank you in advance.
petar3
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,264 posts
 
@iseland, +1...but one runs the risk of a listening space starting to look like a dealers' showroom....or like you 'do review'....;)
petar3 OP
61 posts
 
thank you to everyone who responded. With due respect, I do wish that some posters read the whole post. Problem is that some music sounds great as it should but some does not and the question is, among other things, why such difference. I am now investigating the source and will try cd, records, and alternative streaming application. I tried another set of speakers -- the same result, some music sounds great but not LZ. I did try LZ first album (tidal, deluxe edition) and it sounded OK. Actually, quite good.  
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
1,989 posts
 
I'd buy a zeppelin record from better records as mentioned. Tom's prices are a bit nuts, but you get what you pay for. Most later reissues, especially US pressings, sound terrible. 
mofojo
2,170 posts
 
@petar3,

I meant no disrespect with my comment. It was just based on a lot of classic rock is pretty midrange centric. Not a lot of lows or high highs so if there is a dip in that range I was thinking it may sound a little muted. To be honest though I’ve only ever gotten Zepplin to sound descent, not great. 
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
1,989 posts
 
Honestly even with the better records pressing of zep 1, not all of the songs sound that great! Some do, but not all. Communication breakdown is muffled imo. I would certainly NOT call any zeppelin album, no matter what pressing, audiophile material. Tom speakes of an unreal guitar solo on comm breakdown, I think it sounds meh....also, it is not much of a solo in my opinion, maybe lasts 12 seconds....to be quite honest, I think any of zeps acoustical numbers sound far better...more open and less congestion. Like the op, I have records that blow zep away as far as how they sound on my current set up.
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