i bought dark side of the moon, and it sounds like i'm listening to a cassette.

You should have seen this coming, but...

What gear are you using? Is this an actual CD? I have no problems with the recording of Floyd's music. The FLAC of the MFSL is quite nice

How so? DSotM is considered by many to be a reference quality recording.

Pink Floyd's music was heavilly dependent on overdubbing and production tricks. Whenever that approach is taken, presence and soundstage are compromised. For its day, Dark Side of the Moon sounded OK, but it couldn't compare with albums with less effects and better engineering like Steely Dan's Katy Lied or Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus.

See ya
Steve

Play the track "Time."

When the alarms all go off, if it's not crystal clear and chiming as, uh, clear as a bell, then it's probaby your rig, not the CD. your soundcard may not be up to snuff, especially considering that you don't have an external amp, and thus are using the amp in the soundcard itself. Even something like a $25 chaintech AV-710 and a $35 cmoy headphone DIY amp is going to show improvement, especially since you already have a MS-1!

DSOTM to me sounds blissful.
Its just one of those rare crystal clear albums...
I honestly couldnt even come up with a reason for you...unless there is something wrong with your gear or your cans.

I love Dark Side of the Moon...I listen to it pretty well once a work week on the way home from work. Sounds great to me...

I wouldn't call Dark Side of the Moon reference quality at all. Okay at best. It is not praised for its excellent clarity or soundstage (it really doesn't have either in strong numbers), but instead its overwhelming amount of small details which get more and more apparent as the accuracy and transparency of your gear increases. It's easy to forget that Dark Side of the Moon was a long album, and it was using pretty experimental post-production techniques - this did not help sound quality. The detail levels of the album, however - all of the small little sounds that come through as a result of better equipment - is not to be ignored. Whoever told you that Dark Side of the Moon was a 'reference' recording was wrong. It's good to test one aspect of your recording equipment, but that's about it.

On that note, however, if your copy of Dark Side of the Moon really sounds like a "cassette", then something's wrong here. There are some examples of recordings, like Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica", where there is a squeal sound throughout quiet passages of the album, showing that the tapes they used to make the transfer to CD were dirty, and that the producers didn't even care to take a little q-tip and clean off the acetate. Although, I've not heard of an example of this being found on a copy of Dark Side of the Moon. I would most likely attribute this sound quality problem to your incredibly awful PC sound card source. Excuse my tone on that, by the way, but I've had some major issues with Creative sound cards - I hate them to the n'th degree. I think upgrading (or even downgrading ) your sound card will help immensely. You should not really need to get an amp - your MS1s will sound okay without one. Sure, the amp will help - but source should always come first.

I've never believed that myself. I've heard a few top remasters, and IMO none of them sound anywhere close to reference-quality recordings.
Agreed. It's good for a "classic rock" recording though (not the best-recorded genre).

gosh the recording is over 30 years old. get some perspective.

Age has nothing to do with sound quality. Some of the best sounding recordings were recorded in the early 1950s. Pink Floyd's albums don't sound as good as some others because they are over-produced. The same is true of the Beatles psychedelic albums. Although they are well engineered considering all the mixdowns, they don't sound anywhere near as good as earlier albums like Revolver and Rubber Soul.

See ya
Steve

As Bigshot mentioned, Steely Dan is excellently recorded and produced and those albums are 30+ years old.