Rap music on high-end speakers

One of the worst things about Hi-Fi is the limited genre of music that most audiophiles promote. I find that I can't walk into a Hi-Fi shop without some dealer mentioning the same old 20 to 30 year old rock recording that was recently remastered. Especially if they find out you don't listen to just clssical music.

The truth is a lot of audiophiles are completely out of touch with new music. Be it Rap, Trip Hop, Post-Rock, Electronica, legendary independant record label bands or even techno remixes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan- you won't find new music being auditioned by a dealer in a hi fi shop.

What you can find is music that has a much better recording than performance. Or music that you have heard a million times. I love Kind of Blue, Dark side of the Moon and good recordings the Bach's Brandenburg symphonies but c'mon!

There is so much new music out there that is incredible. There is a ton of older undiscovered music that was influential on the mainstream bands. Anyone listen to the new Neu! re-releases? And yes it is something to sit in the dark and really dissect the musical lines, feel the composition and how your system is reproducing them. Why are people so uncomfortable doing this with new music?

Good performances are always enhanced by good equipment. Isn't that the point of this hobby?

-Karl

I was auditioning some speakers awhile back. Everything was good at first. Put in some Stevie Ray Vaughn, then some female vocal stuff. Speakers sounded great and everyone around approved of my selections. Then put in Rob Zombie and guess what happened... yep, bad looks and worse sound. I was listening to Soliloquy 5.3 speakers being driven by some expensive YMB and McCormick gear.

I had just experienced my first case audio-snobbery. I guess in order to be an audiophile you have to like ONLY music generaly accepted by middle-aged, british gentlemen.

The speakers I was auditioning sounded fantastic with blues, country, classic rock and vocals, but not so great with the hard bass, and computer distorted sounds of really Hard Rock. So if you find a speaker that does all of them great, let me know.

I can't believe these audiophiles are always in the mood to listen to the same type of music all the time. You know I bet even Harry Connick, Jr listens to some Led Zepplin or Pearl Jam now and then.

High fidelity is wasted on hip hop. Why? Hip hop producers aren't concerned with fidelity. How do you know? Well, whenever I hear hip hop, the fidelity is horrible. Oh, so you listen to it at home? No, I don't like hip hop. Oh, but then you must have audiophile friends with hip hop tastes? No, none of my audiophile friends would bother with that. So how, exactly, do you know that there is no high fidelity information in hip hop if you've never listened to a hip hop recording on a high fidelity system? Ummm...

Tru,

I am sorry if my comments angered you. I too listen to mostly 80s and early 90 hip hop, LL Cool J, Naughty by Nature, 2 PAC, etc...my point of my post is that that music is produced for mainly two objectives, low end bass,and tizzing highs. Im not knocking the content, you don't need high end gear to run low end. Go to the local flea market (which I do) and the systems they run compliment and reached the intended goal of the production. Can you buy an amp which puts our good low end? Yes, Krell, Levinson. Can you find a speaker, DAC, analog set up that is Engineered for ONLY low end in mind, and overproduced highs? I don't think so. The pursuit of highend gear for overproduced RB, and Rap is like driving a Hummer in LA.

Have you tried some rock-a-billy polka-punk as a counterpoint to the rap?

The last time I auditioned speakers I used: Vladimir Horowitz, E. Power Biggs, Monte Montgomery, Neil Young (live cut of "Hey, Hey Into the Black" - lots of distortion/feedback), AC/DC, Pearl Jam, Van Morrison, Joe Ely, Leo Kottke, Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, and Natalie Merchant. Sorry, no hip-hop/rap. Closest is FZ's Surgeon General rap on "Broadway the Hardway."

By all means - upgrade your speakers. If you get the Cubs, you'll need a sub-woofer or you won't have deep extended bass. Better put a Sunfire Signature sub on your shopping list or the Wilson sub-woofer (if you have that much $$).