[Huck]

Agreed, if you drop a new piece of gear in your system and less of your music is listenable, you've gone in the wrong direction.

\
It's been that way long before the new DAC,as far as the music goes.I could listen to lousy mastered CD's,now I can barely get through the first track.Low volume not so bad,but turn it up and that bad sound becomes way worse. Well recorded music sounds better when turned up,wheras lousy recorded music sound worst when turned up.
I think I have always had minor digititus since the CD's started back in the eighties and today it seems to be full blown digititus,mainly from crappy put together music(mostly rock)).
I can pretty well tell what the rest of the CD will sound like (good or bad) after the first track.H50

[Don_S]

Agreed, if you drop a new piece of gear in your system and less of your music is listenable, you've gone in the wrong direction.

Not if the rest of the music took a big step up.

[Tyson]

Not if the rest of the music took a big step up.

Not mutually exclusive.  This is why I prefer high performance tube DAC's, as they let you have your cake and eat it too.  High resolution, as well as great tone that still lets me enjoy the vast majority of my digital collection.

[Craig B]

I have some underground Scandinavian Metal, that really sounds amazing on my new equipment.

One of my brothers-in-law likes Scandinavian metal, especially Ghost. He played some for us once on a family vacation, and while I liked it more than most American metal I've heard, metal in general has never been my cup of tea.

[twitch54]

I think the playback gear has simply gotten better and you realize just how bad some of the recordings are.
I had an early Stones CD and CD-R of the same thing on yesterday and it was just dreadful.

I agree with Steve on this as well and will add that in the past 15-20 years and the advent of audio forums on the internet there has been an enormous amount of discussion / influence on equipment. So much so that the 'content' has taken a back seat and we can get caught up in listening to our 'gear' instead.

Just a few of my thoughts .....

[SteveFord]

Many years ago Grace Slick did an interview and she said they were concerned with a how a song would sound on a car radio when it was playing.
Put it on a modern stereo system and well, it sounds like it belongs on a car radio!

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Many years ago Grace Slick did an interview and she said they were concerned with a how a song would sound on a car radio when it was playing.
Put it on a modern stereo system and well, it sounds like it belongs on a car radio!

Back in the 50's and 60's and to some extent today music like RR, Motown and the like were recorded without much regard to fidelity because most people listened to music on a home radio or in the car which many had only AM.  In addition, a lot of people had crappy turntables in a box.  Today, some music is recorded for MP3.

[Tyson]

In my experience, I'd say about 10% of recordings are downright bad, 80% are average and 10% are spectacular. 

Not much can be done about the 10% that are terrible.  And the 10% that are spectacular will usually sound good on any system.

But the 80% in the middle is where you have to be careful.  If you make a change in your system and these recordings sound worse, then that's a big mistake, IMO.  Because the large majority of great music lies within this 80% of recordings.  A change in your system should elevate ALL of these recordings. 

Otherwise, it's like spending $20k to upgrade your kitchen, but the net result is most of the food you cook tastes worse.  That's crazy.

[Huck]

I think most music(rock genre) is done to satisfy the many people who listen through their itty-bitty speaker on their smart phone,so no bass or lower midrange needed.
If rock is your genre of choice,then buying CD's is kind of a gamble as far as quality of music.
If I could refund all the money I spent on lousy sounding(but good music and playing),I would be a rich man! H50

[Tyson]

I think most music(rock genre) is done to satisfy the many people who listen through their itty-bitty speaker on their smart phone,so no bass or lower midrange needed.
If rock is your genre of choice,then buying CD's is kind of a gamble as far as quality of music.
If I could refund all the money I spent on lousy sounding(but good music and playing),I would be a rich man! H50

If you haven't tried Qobuz yet, you should.  No MP3's.  No compression at all.  100% full resolution streaming.  And not only that, a TON of stuff is also if full hi-rez (usually 24/96).  And you get access to basically all major recordings by most major artists of all time (and the catalog is constantly growing).  All for $13 a month.  So that means you never, ever have to spend money on a bad recording.  Want to check out a recording?  Just do a quick search on Qobuz and it's usually there.  Listen as much as you want.  If the quality sucks, only thing you've lost is a bit of time. 

With services like Qobuz, you not only get access to all the great artists of the past, but also to all the great music that's being made now.  For cheap.  Seriously, it's the very best time in all history to be a music lover.  The amount of quality music (and quality recordings) we have access to now has never ever ever been possible in the past. 

Re: recordings not having sufficient bass or lower mids, I disagree. I'm running recordings through my very large, very much full range speakers and I detect no lack of bass or lower mids.  In fact, with some artists the bass in pretty insane.  Like, I can literally feel my chair vibrating from the amount of bass produced. 

[Tyson]

Within my general enthusiasm for the modern day, I'll temper it a bit with the following observation.  Most of the time, a remaster of an old classic recording is great.  But sometimes they cock it up.  Like with poor Led Zeppelin.  The remasters on their catalog are just terrible.  How do they make John Bonham's drumming sound so emaciated?  His driving force on the original versions is one of the things that made LZ special (IMO).  I can compensate somewhat by turning up the subs built in to my speakers, but there's a limit to how much that helps. 

So, to sum up, generally speaking I think things are much better today vs. the past, but there are some things that do get screwed up. 

[Huck]

If you haven't tried Qobuz yet, you should.  No MP3's.  No compression at all.  100% full resolution streaming.  And not only that, a TON of stuff is also if full hi-rez (usually 24/96).  And you get access to basically all major recordings by most major artists of all time (and the catalog is constantly growing).  All for $13 a month.  So that means you never, ever have to spend money on a bad recording.  Want to check out a recording?  Just do a quick search on Qobuz and it's usually there.  Listen as much as you want.  If the quality sucks, only thing you've lost is a bit of time. 

With services like Qobuz, you not only get access to all the great artists of the past, but also to all the great music that's being made now.  For cheap.  Seriously, it's the very best time in all history to be a music lover.  The amount of quality music (and quality recordings) we have access to now has never ever ever been possible in the past. 

Re: recordings not having sufficient bass or lower mids, I disagree. I'm running recordings through my very large, very much full range speakers and I detect no lack of bass or lower mids.  In fact, with some artists the bass in pretty insane.  Like, I can literally feel my chair vibrating from the amount of bass produced.

I have Spotify and Amazon HD now,but only on my upstairs computer headphone rig via usb to Benchmark DAC1 USB...unfortunately I don't have usb access or a wireless streamer to listen to any streaming service(s)in my main listening room...maybe I should look into one(wireless streamer) or maybe even a cheap I-Pad or laptop,as we already have a wireless router.Thanks,H50

[SteveFord]

You could spend $100K on my kitchen and it would still taste like I cooked it:



to get back to music, those old Stones 45s were just dreadful, the better the system the worse they sound.

[Tyson]

I have Spotify and Amazon HD now,but only on my upstairs computer headphone rig via usb to Benchmark DAC1 USB...unfortunately I don't have usb access or a wireless streamer to listen to any streaming service(s)in my main listening room...maybe I should look into one(wireless streamer)).Thanks,H50

Spotify is absolutely compressed, all of it.  It's never going to sound good on a high end system.  Amazon HD is certainly better.  But the real leap in quality comes with Qobuz and/or Tidal, and integrated in to Roon. 

Wireless is not a bad way to go but if you can run ethernet cable, that's better sounding (and more stable).  For endpoints, I really like the ones from Auralic.  For less $$, the ones from Sonos have a good reputation, although I've not personally heard them. 

No need to live with crappy digital sound when getting really good sound is relatively easy. 

[Huck]

Spotify is absolutely compressed, all of it.  It's never going to sound good on a high end system.  Amazon HD is certainly better.  But the real leap in quality comes with Qobuz and/or Tidal, and integrated in to Roon. 

Wireless is not a bad way to go but if. you can run ethernet cable, that's better sounding (and more stable).  For endpoints, I really like the ones from Auralic.  For less $$, the ones from Sonos have a good reputation, although I've not personally heard them. 

No need to live with crappy digital sound when getting really good sound is relatively easy.

Yeah, I realize Spotify is not good,but the wife likes it and she is no where near picky as me as far as music goes,so I keep her happy.
Not sure how to go about streaming to my listening room downstairs...my pre-amp has USB input,so possible to run USB cable from desktop computer upstairs to pre-amp downstairs?....I dunno,wireless streamers are not cheap and I would need some kind of screen to check what's playing.
I have Roku Ultra hooked to my 70 inch big screen in my main listening room,which supports crappy sounding Spotify,but that's it as far as music goes(Amazon HD is not supported)
I would really like to be able to access some streaming,but not sure how to go about it?!.Thanks,H50

[Doublej]

There are a few threads out there on streaming options. How much do you want to spend for a streaming device? For under $50 you can get an Amazon Echo Dot and use the analog output from it to feed your preamp. Voice controlled so you don't need a display but you can also control it from their app.

At the $600 there's the Bluesound NODE. In between the two there's a bunch of stuff from ifi, Andover, Audio Engine, Raspberry Pi (home brew).

All of these use a smartphone app for control. (John) Darko Audio covers streaming extensively in his YouTube videos.

[Tyson]

Bluesound Node is probably the best option between sound quality and ease of use/setup.  It doesn't do Roon, but it will let you stream your Amazon HD service in true lossless format.

[Huck]

Bluesound Node is probably the best option between sound quality and ease of use/setup.  It doesn't do Roon, but it will let you stream your Amazon HD service in true lossless format.

Thanks,I will check it out,but I guess I will need something with a screen to see what I am streaming.
I don't have a smart-phone(maybe only one on my street that doesn't have one),my wife has all the gear(Smart phone,I-pad,laptop)?!
Would a cheapy tablet work as a controller?
I would like to be able to use my 70" big screen as a controller since it's in the same room,but I don't think I can...I have to check.
Anything else I should be looking at around the $700.00 range?
Thanks,Huck

[bkatbamna]

I don't have a lot of time to listen to music because of work.  I am not listening to whiny millenials crying into the microphone.

[sunnydaze]

Bluesound Node is probably the best option between sound quality and ease of use/setup.  It doesn't do Roon, but it will let you stream your Amazon HD service in true lossless format.

+1 on the Node!   

Would a cheapy tablet work as a controller?

Thanks,Huck

Yes!  you can download the BlueOS controller app onto a phone, laptop or tablet.  I control both my Node 2i and PowerNode from my phone and laptop all the time.  Easy to use and very reliable in my experience.  Not sure if you can load the app onto a Smart TV.  Probably not.