[daycart1]

I've got a super source, but only "class B" amplification. Most of my music sounds good on any headphone, but there are some recordings that benefit from the (Senn HD 600 vs. Grado 325) tweak. This is really equivalent to a last little bit of equalization!

 

[Music Fanatic]

I've been thinking about this a lot because I've been thinking about the Audio-Technica AT-DHA3000. (Probably I'll pass over this headphone amp in favor of either the Grace 901 (which has analogue inputs which I want since most of my current listening is in high-resolution audio) or just my receiver (Pioneer 49TXi -- seems to have a killer headphone out.)

But I must confess one thing that really appeals to me about the Audio-Technica is the digitally processed bass/treble controls.

 

[pbirkett]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sovkiller I agree with you in the first part of the detail and brutality of reveling, but not with the second, IMO and IME the 80% of the recordings really sucks, and not the other-way around (at least on classic rock, it seems that in the 70's and 60's any drunk or junkie had access to the mixing consoles) go to jazz, and the situation is the opposite, so IMO all depends on the kind of music you heard...honestly I have music here that there is no way of hearing them with headphones....

I'd concur with this, I listen to dance music, and I'd say the majority were in fact bad recordings, although there are good ones, and often clarity does not make certain ones unlistenable, but there are others that are so bad as to be unlistenable. Now they sound bad whatever the quality of the equipment you use, but I'd say on stuff with the most clarity the gulf between the bad recordings and good one seems much greater.

When your ears are used to really high quality equipment and used to hearing good quality recordings, it makes it that much harder to listen to bad recordings IMO.

Sometimes this is where having a bit more forgiving cans can sometimes help IMO.

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally posted by pbirkett When your ears are used to really high quality equipment and used to hearing good quality recordings, it makes it that much harder to listen to bad recordings IMO. Sometimes this is where having a bit more forgiving cans can sometimes help IMO.

As I said our love for the audio, is killing our musical taste....now in order we can hear good recordings, we have to limitate ourselves to a very few numbers of recordings, and mostly what is not of our main interest...I almost tempted to quit this world and keep in the other.....ignorance is a bliss.....

 

[pbirkett]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sovkiller I almost tempted to quit this world and keep in the other.....ignorance is a bliss.....

Problem is, once you've had a taste of whats possible, then you can no longer live in ignorance, and theres then no turning back

 

[Tomcat]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch I'm discovering that as my systems improve, there seem to be fewer truly bad recordings. What may appear as a bad recording can also be an unexpected issue with the playback setup as well. As my systems increase in resolution, I'm actually better able to listen to recordings I would previously have dismissed as poor, simply because the higher accuracy is getting through the muck and letting me separate the music out. IMO really high clarity and forgiveness may be the same thing in a lot of cases. True accuracy in a system need not be brutal. OTOH, apparent accuracy (which is every bit as much of a musical signature as warmth) can be deadly.

Hirsch,

That's exactly it. Forgiveness and accuracy tend to be one and the same if one defines accuracy as one's ability to appreciate the musical content regardless of the specific sonic character of each recording. To me, this question is of the utmost importance: is a new component better suited to make musical sense out of recordings? Does it allow me to listen around possible sonic flaws, does it show me the musical core of a recording, the artistic intent of a performance? If this is the case, then the component is more accurate, because it has a less distracting sonic character of its own, because it gets out of the music's way, it lets the music through unscathed. And at the same time, it will be more 'forgiving', because it always tends to get the things right that are of musical importance. It doesn't focus one's perception on flaws or on its own sonic character. Forgiveness, accuracy, musicality - they aren't mutually exclusive, in the end, they are identical.