Re: [LAU] Questions from an audiophile to some engineers

From: Bearcat M. Sandor <HomeTheater@email-addr-hidden-soul.com>
Date: Fri Apr 13 2007 - 07:33:58 EEST

Gordon,

Did i insult you personally or something?

Your email is full of baseless assumptions about me and my experiances.
Perhaps no offence was meant, but it reads that way.

I have not purchased the system yet, and claiming that any component is "shit"
is nothing short of rediculous. The Bel Canto Ref 1000s have been reciveing
awards from various audio publications all year. More over *I* like them.
I like the synergy between them and the Gallos. Your exeriances may vary and
you are welcome to them.

Again i may be talking about a different kind of compression, but It's not
obvious that the rock stuff will be heavily compressed. My Nine Inch Nails,
Tool, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd..etc is not compressed heavily.

It's not that i care about the minor details of the sound its that i enjoy the
presentatoin that well recorded music can give. The loss of sound staging is
actually distracting on good speakers. When you go from one track with an
expansive stage to one that sits in a small, flat hole between your speakers,
you notice.

It's not that i have "more money then sense." in fact these speakers are going
to be quite a stretch for me and i like them much more then some pairs that i
just heard tonight that cost 3 times as much. No i don't care about "solid
gold speaker cables". I do care about quality equipment though, or rather
equipment that i like the sound of.

Bearcat

On Thursday 12 April 2007 in an email titled "Re: [LAU] Questions from an
audiophile to some engineers" Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
>On Wed, 2007-04-11 at 10:34 -0600, Bearcat M. Sandor wrote:
>> 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.
>
>Well, you've paid far too much for your equipment. Anything you listen
>to will be coloured by your perception of how it should sound having
>been filtered through thousands of dollars of expectation.
>
>Bel Canto amps are shit. I could chew up a handful of 2N3055s and 741s
>and fart a better amp.
>
>> 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.
>
>Well, obviously. The rock stuff will be heavily compressed compared to
>the jazz CDs, leading to quieter sounds being clipped and cymbals
>pumping wildly.
>
>> 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.
>
>The saddest thing of all is that you care so much about minor details of
>the sound and don't enjoy the music.
>
>> 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?
>
>No, it's whiny people with more money than sense, and an overdeveloped
>sense of their own listening skills.
>
>No offence intended. I get sick of hearing similar rants. Next you're
>going to tell us you're upgrading to solid gold power cables, or some
>such.
>
>Gordon

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Received on Fri Apr 13 08:15:07 2007

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