Is there a role for great performances/bad recordings?

[jazzpiano]

Hello,

In addition to the usual evaluation tool - great sounding records you are familiar with, I'm wondering... Do poor recordings of great performances have a role to play in evaluating equipment? Should equipment make these records sound more pleasing, "euphonic" if you will, or should they bare their faults? Can the 'fi' get too 'hi'? What if too many details or "warts" are hi-lighted? Interested in knowing others opinions and how relates to system-building or matching, etc.

Best,
Barry :peace:

[Reid Malenfant]

A good system will unfortunately show up the faults in the recording :eyebrows: I have lots of stuff I wouldn't call top class, but I still love the music & that's why it keeps me going back to listen, faults & all ;)

[morris_minor]

Yes, hi can get too fi IMO but if the performance is good enough it doesn't really matter.

The reverse is worse. Great recordings of lousy performances only ever come out to show off/test your kit :rolleyes:. And the satisfaction of playing these is very short-lived.

[jandl100]

Yep, I agree, Bob. I know of too many folks who insist on buying SACD classical discs, for example, even when they aren't much cop in terms of performance.
I feel sure it's the same with hi-rez downloads.
IMO they've lost sight of the point of the whole thing. But hey ho, to each their own! :)

[jandl100]

But to answer the question .... hmm, I almost always use good recordings to audition and assess hifi. The much-loved but poorer recordings just have to take their chances!

I used to use a Behringer DEQ equalizer, and that was great for making some really horrid recordings quite listenable. But it died, and I guess I've kind of moved on from that anyway. :scratch:

[morris_minor]

I feel sure it's the same with hi-rez downloads.

I don't quite share this opinion Jerry! You can get pristine, super-duper SQ files of mediocre music in the same way as SACD/DVD-A/CD, but conversely there are some great performances out there in hi-rez. Maybe they're a bit harder to find, but they are there . . .:D

[jandl100]

Yes, I am sure you're right, Bob.

I didn't mean to imply that hi-rez recordings are always of poor musical performances or that Red Book recordings were always world class musically. ;)
But I'm sure a lot of folk will listen to hi-rez in preference to say Red Book CD simply because it's hi-rez, and miss out on the glories to be found in 'lesser' technologies. :)

[morris_minor]

Yes - I'm sure there are those who shun "lesser formats" because of inferior SQ. I've been known to download mp3 files of stuff not available in other formats because I just wanted to hear the music. IMO 320Kbit mp3 isn't "that" bad . . :eek:

[jandl100]

OK, it's "fess up" time. :D


But I'm sure a lot of folk will listen to hi-rez in preference to say Red Book CD simply because it's hi-rez ...

That's what I did. :mental:

I've owned a couple of SACD players and I always found that I was playing the SACDs in preference to my CD collection - and buying more & more SACDs which more often than not were a major disappointment musically.

My glorious CD collection was being ignored because of my obsession with hi-rez.
I realised the error of my ways both times and sold the SACD players.

Perhaps it just shows a flaw in my own personality - but I suspect it's one shared by a significant proportion of the hifi fraternity.

Music comes first, always. :thumbsup:

[bobbasrah]

IMHO, the fact that it is hi-res is not necessarily related to how good it sounds. Some downloads sound better than the CD, but there are a few that do not. What has surprised me is how a digitised vinyl issue can sound better than it's CD counterpart, depending of course on the source equipment used. I do not recollect the reverse case.

OT - Some performances can be superb, but sound as if the recording was made from the back of a cupboard or down a cardboard tube. The replay is less sonically revealing but the performance shines through.
A lost opportunity for it to be properly recorded for fuller enjoyment perhaps, and which cannot be altered later, only if the performance is recreated and recorded can that be resolved, but rarely is that the case.

[MartinT]

I've also gone down the route of buying lesser known performances on SACD and sometimes they come out well but all too often they're disappointing and never get played again.

You really can't beat great performances and, whether well recorded or not, they are lasting testaments to great music.

[JJack]

I listen to a lot of classical recordings on DG and Melodiya.

These are often very rough in the treble, but I absolutely have to listen to these during an audition because that's how I'll actually listen at home.

I'm going to start another thread about audition pieces.