Comments on Profile Post by westermac

I wouldn't. What's the point of buying better gear and having it force you to listen to music you don't like simply because the recording sucks?

@zonto Maybe "it feels ironic" would be more accurate – I don't regret my gear purchases since there is enough well-produced music I enjoy that it's worth it. It's just kinda funny to have a bad recording reproduced so precisely

I listened to a lot of pop punk kind of stuff in high school and college and it never ceases to amaze me how bad some of it sounds the more I upgrade my chain. :)

There's much more to music than the quality of the recording. I'm not going to stop listening to Benny Goodman or Glenn Miller just because their recordings are mono and a little scratchy & hissy.

I've found the higher up I went with gear, to some extent, the less I enjoyed the music. I read somewhere else that it might be do to higher expectations or the gear is simply showing faults that weren't apparent on the lower priced stuff...either way, I still enjoy music now as much as I did in the beginning of my audio journey.

@cskippy I noticed that very thing when comparing HD600 to Utopia for the umpteenth time yesterday.

I love listening to terrible old recordings (e.g. "Back In The DHSS"/Trumption Riots EP by HMHB) on a decent chain. It was recorded on a portastudio above a chip shop, and sounds appalling, but the songs still shine through- and I can hear exactly how bad the recording and indeed the musical skills of the band were back then. I might be odd, though.

Also, a lot of things that just sound like a wall of mush on lesser gear resolve into their components more with decent gear, against expectations. Surely hearing more of the music is the object of the exercise?

@Kattefjaes I think you're on to something there... Even on the worst recordings, the improved imaging, decay, soundstage etc of better gear can sometimes help me hear through the muck a bit more clearly