[essex853]

I have just started to listen to music with headphones 'properly' rather than plugging in a half decent pair to my intergrated amp on the odd occasion.  
I have noticed that my head-fi system is much more sensitive to poor recordings, I guess because there is no air between my ears and the drivers so nothing is lost, even hiss and other stuff I hadn't noticed before.
 
So, this has started to be a consideration when I choose what to listen to and I wondered if this was common among head-fiers.
 
I've noticed for example that anything by Jack Johnson is really clean and sounds great but the Noel Gallaghers' High Flying Birds album sounds so bad I just can't get into it, a few tracks in and I want to play something else, even though I like the music, the whole thing sounds messy and badly recorded (which is surprising as I would imagine Noel to have a decent budget for a producer!)
 
I assume that the vast difference I'm hearing is down to the individual recordings (?) almost all of my music is ripped from CD at 16bit 1411kbps (WAV) and played through the same system.
 
Any recommendations for great Head-Fi music? No classical or Country please!

 

[darcyb62]

Check this out...
 
https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=catalogdetail&valbum_code=HD666666666666
 
Darcy

 

[essex853]

This looks interesting, thanks. I'm not sure if I can play FLAC with iTunes though (?)

 

[darcyb62]

I converted it to ALAC and imported to iTunes.

 

[dirtpacker]

how did you do the conversion to alac

 

[bluzeboy]

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

 

[darcyb62]

Quote:

how did you do the conversion to alac

For Mac I use MAX.
http://sbooth.org/Max/

 

[bluzeboy]

 
 


 

 

[Clincher09]

Nine Inch Nails and Pendulum, two artists that put alot of work into production and mixing. Listening to them for the first time through a high quality set up was like listening to their albums for the first time. 

 

[essex853]

I borrowed a Pendulum album from my brother, sounds 'clean' enough but not quite what I'm looking for when I want to chill and have a mellow listen! 
Anything less likely to induce a nose bleed?
 
Tarantulas' a great track though!

 

[essex853]

Additionally, regarding the 'Noel Gallaghers' High Flying Birds' album I mentioned previously, I have given it a few more spins and listened carefully,
Could someone listen to the track 'AKA What A Life' and tell me if there is a real nasty distortion on the vocal? especially in the right channel.
 
I'm not a musician or a producer/engineer but I can hear something that surely shouldn't be there...or am I just suffering from the curse of the audiophile? listening for mistakes/faults rather than feeling the music?
 
I like the track but I also listen to music to enjoy the sound quality of my system, to my ears this album just sounds 'bad', this track in particular. 
 
Are some things recorded with rough edges to give a sense of live realism or are some recordings simply badly produced/recorded?
 
Everything I have by Peter Gabriel (pretty much everything) sounds perfect, clean and precise, perhaps I'm just getting old!
 
 

 

[hodgjy]

I have always been a Pink Floyd fan.  Since they released the 2011 remasters, I've been rebuilding my collection.  These remasters are fabulous, if you ask me.  They are smooth and have great imaging.  Pink Floyd has always used the sound stage in their recordings, placing all kinds of voices and instruments all over the place.  I love listening to Pink Floyd through my headphones, particularly with a tube amp, because I can hear the sound stage subtleties that my tower speaker rig can't quite do (it's not all that great--it's mainly voiced and imaged for movies).

 

[essex853]

Got to love Floyd! I have Darkside on Super Audio CD but I don't have a SA disc spinner so looking forward to taking this to another level one day!
 
 

 

[hodgjy]

I have the SACD mix and the new 2011 mix.  If you have a 5.1 system, the SACD mix is very good.  If you only have 2.0, trust me, the 2011 mix blows the 2003 SACD 2.0 mix out of the water.
 
Quote:

Got to love Floyd! I have Darkside on Super Audio CD but I don't have a SA disc spinner so looking forward to taking this to another level one day!
 
 

 

 

[essex853]

Good to know thanks, I'll look into the 2011 remaster...