[LAU] Questions from an audiophile to some engineers

From: Bearcat M. Sandor <HomeTheater@email-addr-hidden-soul.com>
Date: Wed Apr 11 2007 - 19:34:24 EEST

There is something that has been bothering me for a long time that i have
never recieved a satisfactory answer to. I keep asking audiophile people
like myself, and it only just occurred to me that i have this whole list
of audio engineers here to pester..er..ask.

Why is it that most of my CD's suck as far as recording quality? Now,
don't bite me, i'm not talking about you folks. I know all of your
recordings are awesome! *nods wisely*

As i mentioned in another thread, i am in the process of purchasing an
audio system: Gallo Accoustic Reference 3.1 speakers, Bel Canto ref 1000
mono bloc amps, and my computer+RME HDSP aes-32+ RME adi-8qs for the front
end.

This system is *very* revealing of recording quality and you can hear
minute changes at the boards. They have really shown me which of my discs
are recorded well and which are recorded badly

Here's the kind of thing i'm complaining about:

If i listen to a well regarded recording like Mile's Davis' "A Kind of
Blue" the sound stage is spread out, the drums and piano have weight, and
the cymbols have shimmer.

Then when i put on one of my heavy metal or popular cds the sound stage
colapses to a very smal area right between the speakers (live recording or
not), the kick drums and piano sound almost wet and the cymbols are cut
short.

I have almost 700 cds now (ripped lossessly to my hard drive with flac).
It occurred to me that once this system is in my house i'm gonna start
playing the discs that are well recorded instead of all of it. That means
that about two thirds of my music is gonna be not played so much. Sad.

So, my question to you is what causes these bad recordings most of the time?
Is it musicians who can't afford good producers and equipment?
Are kick drums, ambiance and cymbols hard to capture? Is it compression
to make things sound "louder"? Are they saving money by mixing for low-end
systems figuring no one will care?

As far as the compression goes, would i do better to buy vinyl and master
it to my hard drive or is the compression done before the mastering to
vinyl takes place?

Any comments, ideas?

Thanks,

Bearcat M. Sandor
Audiophile not Engineer

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Received on Wed Apr 11 20:15:06 2007

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