Better quality gear revealing poorly recorded material. Primare/PMC setup

[admin_exported]

I have recently upgraded to a relatively resolving and detailed setup (see bio) and I am finding that a lot of my favorite recordings were not so well done and sound shrill and harsh. On well recorded and mastered music the sound is almost jaw-droppingly good, however I listen to alot of electronic/hiphop/dnb/reggae music and the level of compression, lack of detail and overall poor SQ is annoying me to the point where it is affecting what i listen to (not a good thing!!!).

I know things like valve amplification can be used to smooth things out, but is there in my case a single component that I could upgrade to bring some more life in my more poorly recorded material?

I am kind of hoping a DAC upgrade will solve the issue as I believe this to be the 'bottleneck' in the system and what I am looking to upgrade next.

 

[Paul.]

I remember demoing my first proper system in winchester (Mission M35s with a Harmon Kardon something or other that I didn't buy) with my favourite Hell is for Heroes album. Couldn't believe how bloody awful it sounded! To this day I can only listen to that album on earbuds or my cheap eBay system at work.

I too am curious to see peoples answers to this one.

 

[Anonymous]

i feel the same about my stereo. After having a huge upgrade and buying all the stuff in my signature, some tunes sound bloody terrible where as before they sounded ok. I personally think its my beresford dac to blame and im going to be buying a rega dac soon which will hopefully sort everything out

 

[hammill]

JezBaker:i feel the same about my stereo. After having a huge upgrade and buying all the stuff in my signature, some tunes sound bloody terrible where as before they sounded ok. I personally think its my beresford dac to blame and im going to be buying a rega dac soon which will hopefully sort everything outI would be astonished if a well respected dac could make some tunes sound terrible. I look forward to your report after you have made the upgrade.

 

[jiggyjoe]

There is nothing much you can do with poor quality recordings, better your hi-fi the worse it sounds.

Tone controls on your amp can help if you have them. Other than that play your rubbish recordings on a pc ( sounds quite good on my £50 dell sub/sat system) or portable music player.

 

[shooter]

joost_db:
I have recently upgraded to a relatively resolving and detailed setup (see bio) and I am finding that a lot of my favorite recordings were not so well done and sound shrill and harsh. On well recorded and mastered music the sound is almost jaw-droppingly good, however I listen to alot of electronic/hiphop/dnb/reggae music and the level of compression, lack of detail and overall poor SQ is annoying me to the point where it is affecting what i listen to (not a good thing!!!).

Are you talking about download only material or ripped playback.

 

[The_Lhc]

Doesn't make any difference, poorly recorded is poorly recorded, you hear people saying this about CDs quite a lot.

 

[Helmut80]

OP, i'd be interested in some specific hiphop recordings that sound horrible on your system.

 

[plastic penguin]

joost_db:

I have recently upgraded to a relatively resolving and detailed setup (see bio) and I am finding that a lot of my favorite recordings were not so well done and sound shrill and harsh. On well recorded and mastered music the sound is almost jaw-droppingly good, however I listen to alot of electronic/hiphop/dnb/reggae music and the level of compression, lack of detail and overall poor SQ is annoying me to the point where it is affecting what i listen to (not a good thing!!!).

I know things like valve amplification can be used to smooth things out, but is there in my case a single component that I could upgrade to bring some more life in my more poorly recorded material?

I am kind of hoping a DAC upgrade will solve the issue as I believe this to be the 'bottleneck' in the system and what I am looking to upgrade next.

How long ago did you upgrade? I know from personal experience it can take a lot of time to adjust to a new amp or CDP or speakers. I've found the more expensive the item(s) the more revealing it is, regardless of format fed.

 

[noogle]

I think you need a downgrade, not an upgrade. I auditioned the PMC GB1i's for my last system and had exactly the same experience - jaw-dropping with good recordings but excruciating with bad recordings. Monitor-like revelation and accuracy isn't everything.

 

[staggerlee]

At a one stage i did think its not worth having top end stuff due to their revealing nature. But when you get it right, wow - worth every penny

 

[shooter]

the_lhc:Doesn't make any difference, poorly recorded is poorly recorded, you hear people saying this about CDs quite a lot.

True enough.

 

[Anonymous]

So i guess at some point you reach a system quality level where it only really makes sense to further upgrade if you are into the 'audiophile' genres such as classical, jazz, rock.

 

[plastic penguin]

joost_db:So i guess at some point you reach a system quality level where it only really makes sense to further upgrade if you are into the 'audiophile' genres such as classical, jazz, rock.

Nope: What is more important is matching. The better the quality the fussier a system is for matching... I've found this out to my [frustrated] cost.

 

[Anonymous]

This will make the well recorded stuff even better.

Point is the well recorded stuff already sounds fantastic on my system, i doubt system matching will do much to the compressed recordings?

Or am I wrong?

 

[plastic penguin]

joost_db:

This will make the well recorded stuff even better.

Point is the well recorded stuff already sounds fantastic on my system, i doubt system matching will do much to the compressed recordings?

Or am I wrong?

Yes and no really. The flip-side is if you have poorly matched system or one that lacks perfect synergy, a compressed recording can sound dreadful as opposed to a "not as good" sound.

 

[6th.replicant]

With the main hi-fi, IME each upgrade just improves everything incrementally - the CD of Blood Sex... will still sound 'orrible but better than before, while Songs in the Key... will sound even more lush than it did previously. Never experienced any form of retrograde step, though.

But, I did suddenly notice a heeoooge difference 'tween AACs and ALACs when I started using my iPod with Klipsch X10s - AACs sounded blunt compared to ALACs.

 

[noogle]

I think you end up gradually migrating to music that sounds good on your system.

 

[WinterRacer]

With my old system I used to have a stack of recordings I couldn't listen to. The funny thing was I used to find these bad recordings sounded OK on headphones, so I had an inkling that it wasn't as simple as bad recordings.

Now I have a system I'm happy with, with no obvious flaws (to me), I can appreciate the good recordings but still enjoy the not so good - very much as I find with my headphone based system.

 

[Overdose]

I don't necessarily think that this is something particular to 'better quality gear'. I have a Kenwood mini system in the kitchen with Wharfdale Diamond 9 speakers and can spot a dodgy recording all the way over from the cooker.

Poor material will always be noticeable in all but the most rubbish of systems. Better quality kit will only accentuate the shortcomings of any duff recording.