[Necrolic]

Anybody else gone through the experience where you upgrade your system, only to find it has made some of your favorite music at the time a lot less enjoyable, and some of your less liked music much more enjoyable, effectively changing your favorite tunes?

I've just gone through this. Prior to upgrading my source/amp, I was listening to a lot of punk/pop-punk (Millencolin, Blink 182, Sum 41, Treble Charger, Alkaline Trio, etc.), not the most audiophile stuff, mostly poorly recorded, but I was loving it. Got my new gear, and now it's almost hard to listen to some of the older stuff (specifically Blink's really old stuff, as well as New Found Glory's first few albums), everything just seems so undetailed and boring, and on NFG's stuff the midrange almost seems non-existent (like the recessed mids of my Denons have been highlighted, looks like markl mod time!).

But then I go and listen to stuff from Jack's Mannequin, Cage the Elephant, Breaking Benjamin, Coheed and Cambria, Rise Against, A Day to Remember, and Billy Talent, which were some of my less listened-to bands, and everything sounds simply AMAZING with the exception of a few early recordings.

So anybody else had this experience? It's a little bit of awesome mixed with a little bit of awful for me, but I'm sure I'll adapt and learn to love the poorly recorded stuff regardless.

 

[Eagle Eye]

Well Necrolic you knew that when you upgrade your equipment you run the risk of showing the true quality of the source you are listening to, LOL. I am not into your style music but it is true that alot of the Southern Gospel CD's that I thought sounded so good have now been proven to be not very good for source material. I guess there is no way around it but my objective was to find a place where I could be happy with the sound and then focus on upgrading my sources and finding new genre's etc. I am now more concentrated on getting good quality sources. I am also finding some of the older jazz CD's I liked are not up to par either. I guess this is the fun in this hobby and thank God for there being good quality recordings available. Happy listening.

 

[happyxix]

Yup. I listen to the same music as you and all I have to say is that Blink182 will never be the same again =[

I still like Sum41 though.

 

[LFF]

This happened to me as well. I always wondered why I could never get certain favorite songs of mine to sound "right". I eventually found out that the equipment I had mattered but only to a certain degree. I learned that what really matters is the mastering of the source material and everything else that preceded the mastering.

I have stopped upgrading my system but have fallen into the habit of remastering almost everything I have bought and continue to buy. My friends and family sometimes hate that about me.

 

[Young Spade]

Well I don't think it has made me enjoy any of my music any less but I know I've listened to more music and have gone back to things I though I didn't like because they sounded better.
All worked out great for me

 

[RedSky0]

Look into some jazz, classical and heavily string based songs. Just about anything that relies on non-synthesised instruments and has a lot of texture to it. Bad recordings will always sound bad, but most pop and semi/mainstream recordings which are auto-tuned are very mono-tonal and don't really benefit that much from hi-fi equipment anyway.

 

[Justin Uthadude]

I don’t want to sound rude, but have you thought maybe your taste is improving now that your equipment is improving? I don’t listen to punk/pop-punk, so I’m not directing my comment at that genre, but maybe now you hear it for what it is when played cleaner. Kinda like when the morning sun shines on that girl you met last night. You realize she was good from afar, but far from good.

Since I've done some upgrading, I find myself enjoying stuff now that I would have never taken home before.
.

 

[sonci]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin Uthadude /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don’t want to sound rude, but have you thought maybe your taste is improving now that your equipment is improving? I don’t listen to punk/pop-punk, so I’m not directing my comment at that genre, but maybe now you hear it for what it is when played cleaner. Kinda like when the morning sun shines on that girl you met last night. You realize she was good from afar, but far from good. Since I've done some upgrading, I find myself enjoying stuff now that I would have never taken home before. .

Yeah, I was thinking the same..
You were ruined listening to blink..
@LFF do you need the original recording, the raw source, for mastering, or a mastered disc can be remastered, (sorry hijacking)

 

[AudioNovice]

My MS1's really reveal electric guitars, so ever since I've got them, I've had a renewed appreciation for Jimi and Zeppelin. But even more, all those old school bands like CCR, the Who, the Beatles and Uriah Heep... the MS1s have revealed some great electric guitar playing. I guess the equipment I used before sorta hid or masked the guitar for those bands, but with the MS1s, it's *really* enjoyable listening to their guitar riffs.

So ya, these headphones have changed my playlist quite a bit. I think it's more about what they reveal than anything.