[Jabroni]

Really?The cuts I heard on youtube seem to be of similar quality, and I thought Angels was better musically. Don't know which album this came from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZfoopfNqPA&feature=related

but I thought it more creative than 90% of the stuff the mainstream is trying to foist. Thanks for bringing Blue Rodeo to my attention.

God, my PLEASURE. This whole thread will have been worth it if I'm able to introduce someone to Blue Rodeo, one of my all time favorite bands. IMO, no other singer or group on earth does ballads better. Here are some of my favorite Blue Rodeo tunes that you might like to check out:

194. Blue Rodeo - After The Rain (4:25)
195. Blue Rodeo - Already Gone (5:17)
196. Blue Rodeo - Cynthia (4:40)
197. Blue Rodeo - Dark Angel (5:16)
198. Blue Rodeo - Fall In Line (3:22)
199. Blue Rodeo - Fallen From Grace (3:54)
200. Blue Rodeo - Head Over Heels (4:02)
201. Blue Rodeo - House Of Dreams (4:40)
202. Blue Rodeo - I'll Wait For You (5:43)
203. Blue Rodeo - Montreal (3:17)
204. Blue Rodeo - Now And Forever (3:07)
205. Blue Rodeo - One More Night (5:48)
206. Blue Rodeo - Photograph (4:11)
207. Blue Rodeo - Rain Down On Me (4:48)
208. Blue Rodeo - 'Til I Gain Control Again (4:29)
209. Blue Rodeo - Try (4:00)
210. Blue Rodeo - We Could Ever Be Something (3:28)
211. Blue Rodeo - What Is This Love (With Sarah McLachlan) (6:16)

[Jabroni]

You seem quite passionate about the fact that you feel the recording industry is doing a lousy job. I have two thoughts:

1) Perhaps that is just how things are. I find I don't really like most music period. That's ok, what I do like, I really like. That goes for recording quality, but also composition, performance, emotional content, etc. You might have to content yourself with the 5 or 10% or whatever that you deem well recorded.

OR

2) Seriously, maybe you should go into audio production and make things better. If you have great ears, very high standards, and are intelligent and diligent, you could do very well, and help all us poor music fans out in the process.

I honestly thought about it but you know what's worse than listening to crappy recordings? Listening to crappy music! At least with a crappy recording you can always turn it down or put on headphones and still enjoy the music but it would be torture for me to have to mix and master music that my heart wasn't into but that's what a pro has to do. Day in day out for months on end. It would kill me.

[James Tanner]

[BrysTony]

God, my PLEASURE. This whole thread will have been worth it if I'm able to introduce someone to Blue Rodeo, one of my all time favorite bands. IMO, no other singer or group on earth does ballads better. Here are some of my favorite Blue Rodeo tunes that you might like to check out:

194. Blue Rodeo - After The Rain (4:25)
195. Blue Rodeo - Already Gone (5:17)
196. Blue Rodeo - Cynthia (4:40)
197. Blue Rodeo - Dark Angel (5:16)
198. Blue Rodeo - Fall In Line (3:22)
199. Blue Rodeo - Fallen From Grace (3:54)
200. Blue Rodeo - Head Over Heels (4:02)
201. Blue Rodeo - House Of Dreams (4:40)
202. Blue Rodeo - I'll Wait For You (5:43)
203. Blue Rodeo - Montreal (3:17)
204. Blue Rodeo - Now And Forever (3:07)
205. Blue Rodeo - One More Night (5:48)
206. Blue Rodeo - Photograph (4:11)
207. Blue Rodeo - Rain Down On Me (4:48)
208. Blue Rodeo - 'Til I Gain Control Again (4:29)
209. Blue Rodeo - Try (4:00)
210. Blue Rodeo - We Could Ever Be Something (3:28)
211. Blue Rodeo - What Is This Love (With Sarah McLachlan) (6:16)

I totally agree with you on Blue Rodeo -- they are an awesome band.  I have several of their albums loaded up on my BDP-1.   

Tony

[BrysTony]

James,

Tell me that the ad didn't go out with a misspelled word -- introducting 

Tony

[Zero]

LMAO at the above.

[Jabroni]

I totally agree with you on Blue Rodeo -- they are an awesome band.  I have several of their albums loaded up on my BDP-1.   

Tony

Seriously, it's one of the many reasons I feel so fortunate to have been born in Canada. Had I been born elsewhere I might not have heard about them. I know you can't miss what you don't know you're missing but because I know about them I know what I'd be missing if I'd never heard of them... if that makes any sense

[BrysTony]

Seriously, it's one of the many reasons I feel so fortunate to have been born in Canada. Had I been born elsewhere I might not have heard about them. I know you can't miss what you don't know you're missing but because I know about them I know what I'd be missing if I'd never heard of them... if that makes any sense

Jabroni,
Yes, I understand what you are saying and indeed, you are fortunate to have been born in Canada.  And that post is a good one -- much better than questioning the reading ability and math skills of other AC members.  Just saying'.

Tony

[*Scotty*]

I think you may have misunderstood what this hobby is about and this has led to unrealistic  expectations.   High Fidelity equipment is purchased by the few, to listen to recordings made for the masses by people who are, for the most part completely indifferent to the sound quality of the recordings they produce.
 Unless the sound quality is bad enough to impact the sales of the recording or the artist has enough clout to demand something be done about the sound quality nothing will change.   For as long as I have been cognizant of the sound quality of recordings ,over 45 years, there have always been bad sounding recordings. I don't think there are a higher percentage now then there were in the past. 
 As you pointed out the equipment can't fix a bad recording. However it is now possible to apply equalization via the playback software on our computers that can fix some of the problems that exist on our recordings.  I think overall that things are better now than they were in the past when digital EQ upon playback was unavailable.   
 If you think that "the High End is supposed to be about consistently great to amazing sound", all of the time then you are doomed to be consistently disappointed by what you hear.  I'm happy that most of the time I find the music that I am listening to is an enjoyable experience even if the recording does not produce amazing sound. I don't live for the occasional experience of amazing sound and spend the rest of the time in the doldrums.   
 Everything is relative, the sound I now listen to everyday and consider an average sound quality from a recording is the same quality that I would have considered very good a just a few short years ago and a decade before that, Absolutely XXXXing amazing/unbelievable. 
Ain't progress a great thing.
Scotty   

[*Scotty*]

I think people should be introduced to Captain Tractor,The Tragically Hip,The Guess Who,Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot. Not necessarily in that particular order.
Scotty

[PDR]

Dont know about Capt Tractor....??

But the rest seem to be a Canadiana library.....

Since I'm Canadian.....I agree...

I have been let down, I have been euphoric, to each his own,you have to find or loose your place in this hobby. Some of the above sound great, some dont. Some have really great song writing, some dont. I grew up in the last 50 yrs with most of those artists....do I feel blessed?....hmmmm..Britain would be my choice.

[BrysTony]

I think people should be introduced to Captain Tractor,The Tragically Hip,The Guess Who,Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot. Not necessarily in that particular order.
Scotty

What about Shania Twain and Celine Dion?  Or Rita MacNeil?  A Canadian friend of mine gave me one of her CDs.

Tony

[PDR]

Shania, Celine and Rita.........ehhhh......no.
Some have nice sound.......little content.

[BrysTony]

Shania, Celine and Rita.........ehhhh......no.
Some have nice sound.......little content.

I'm not Canadian so I'm just trying to show that I am familiar with Canadian singers.  But I have to defend Shania Twain because she had some good songs and she is smokin' hot!!

Tony

[*Scotty*]

PDR, Captain Tractor is based right next door to you over in Edmonton.
Scotty

[TONEPUB]

The Verve remastered Billie Holiday is my acid test for any system.  It's an old recording and can sound like nails on a chalkboard on the wrong system.  On the right system it is quite musical and enjoyable.  In other words, it's a less than perfect recording.  How your system handles less than perfect recordings will dictate how enjoyable your system is. 

Put it another way - if your system sounds AWESOME with 10% of music and BAD with 90%, then your system is pretty messed up, IMO.  On the other hand, if your system sounds VERY GOOD with most recordings, and sounds BAD with the minority of your recordings, then you're on the right track. 

I've seen it over and over again, people assume that their overly-analytical systems are "revealing", and that the crappy, unmusical sound they are getting is a result of their "transparent" systems laying bare "how bad" most recordings truly are.

I'm here to tell you IT IS NOT THE RECORDING, IT IS YOUR SYSTEM.  Trust me, I've been down that path of "transparency" and "accuracy" and it's a dead end.

I gotta agree with this. While I can hear the diff between pressings, etc etc. I can't say that much stuff sounds truly bad on my system.

And hey you Canadians, no mention of Doug and the Slugs?  One of my favorite Canadian bands!  And how about a little love for Mae Moore?   

[HsvHeelFan]

The Verve remastered Billie Holiday is my acid test for any system.  It's an old recording and can sound like nails on a chalkboard on the wrong system.  On the right system it is quite musical and enjoyable.  In other words, it's a less than perfect recording.  How your system handles less than perfect recordings will dictate how enjoyable your system is. 

Put it another way - if your system sounds AWESOME with 10% of music and BAD with 90%, then your system is pretty messed up, IMO.  On the other hand, if your system sounds VERY GOOD with most recordings, and sounds BAD with the minority of your recordings, then you're on the right track. 

I've seen it over and over again, people assume that their overly-analytical systems are "revealing", and that the crappy, unmusical sound they are getting is a result of their "transparent" systems laying bare "how bad" most recordings truly are.

I'm here to tell you IT IS NOT THE RECORDING, IT IS YOUR SYSTEM.  Trust me, I've been down that path of "transparency" and "accuracy" and it's a dead end.

Agreed.  I listen to a lot of '50s and '60s jazz.  I'm okay with the redbook CD's.

I'm more interested in the musical performance than the recording.  If I can have a great performance with a great recording, well, then I'm set.   That's not always the case.  My favorite recording of Respighi's Pine of Rome is a early to mid 80's Telarc recording.

My favorite recording of Respighi's Roman Festivals is a 1959 version of Philadelphia with Eugene Ormandy conducting.

I listen to what makes my happy.  If you don't like it, I don't care.

My system is better than most of my friends.  I'm okay with that. I do have a friend that has a system that I can't compete with, so I don't.  He's got the big Thiels driven by Goldmund monoblocks.   He also has a Spectral Imaging CD player and some Spectal Imaging amps, along with a Bryston 4B and a Proceed 3 channel amp.    Great system, but it's not significantly better than mine for a lot more money.

Highend audio is definitely a ladder of diminishing returns.

HsvHeelFan

[2bigears]

  Blue Rodeo,  song called Floating is a good one too.got all their work.they have mucho talent those boys....

[jules]

So, Jabroni's original post expressed some views that don't comply with the narrow accepted band of views which make people comfortable and re-enforce the accepted assumptions of this hobby.

Naughty Jabroni 

jules

[2bigears]

   systems are or should be genre specifically built.A rock and roll system is best for rock ....    as stated before,the room is the ""BIG DADY'O"" !!!!!! .....