[Alexhifi]

Was playing a song through my iPod->pocketdock->Xin SM-> SR225s and heard some nasty distortion in some music I was listening to. Had to go down the list to see where this distortion was coming from : Headphones? Nope, does it on another pair. Pocketdock? Nope, same through headphone jack -> amp. Amp? Nope, does it through headphone jack directly to phones. The ALAC file? Nope, the FLAC (and WAV) have the same distortion. The ripping? Nope, directly playing from CD causes it to! They recorded the song to fricken hot.

I curse Universal Music for such piss-poor "dubbing". Is there a list here of studios that are trusted to put out good recordings?

-Alex

 

[EdipisReks]

it really sucks, doesn't it? i'm about ready to quit buying new music, unless i know that the mastering was done well. might as well download LAME -standard MP3's if it is going to sound distorted anyway.

 

[EdipisReks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexhifi I curse Universal Music for such piss-poor "dubbing". Is there a list here of studios that are trusted to put out good recordings?

with pop, they pretty much all do it. it is an attempt at getting their music to play louder than anyone elses on the radio. of course it backfires, as radiostations use software that compresses the signal. the hot disks actually end up being played softer a lot of the time, as the overall louder signal gets averaged to a lower volume.

 

[Alexhifi]

I knew it wouldn't make any difference, but I tried lowering the "volume" in itunes (kinda like the sound level control that they have if you turn it on) and played it again through my portable rig - distortion is still there. It's so blatant, it's incredible. Shoot, maybe I should try a different CD player as well.

It is a compilation CD, so maybe the original recording sucked...one never knows.

-Alex

 

[PachmanP]

the solution of course is to leave head-fi.

go listen on some stock earbuds and you probably won't notice.

I got really annoyed when I got my first(/only..so far..) set of decent cans

and all of a sudden started hearing alot of pops and static etc that I thought was something wrong with the phones but it turned out most of it was just cause I was listening to cd backups made with nero, so when I went back to the origionals and no problems except for stuff done by one of my favorite bands that was just a small time pop-punk band.

 

[Alexhifi]

When I say compilation CD, I mean compiled by professionals, not made by myself through nero/sonic/etc. I am beginning to believe I should go back to mediocre equipment, but I've heard music through good equipment and I kinda can't go back.

Such is life...

-Alex

 

[jpr703]

When I got my first good rig together, I got tempted to give the whole thing up after I found a couple albums that I had once really liked sounded terrible in hi-fi. However, once I started listening to some other things I hadn't heard in a while, I found several albums that I used to think of as mediocre that really came alive on good equipment.

So, I few old favorites have dropped out of rotation, but I've re-discovered a lot of other music that I now enjoy much more. Somehow it all balances out!

 

[Jahn]

Horrible. Both of Erasure's latest releases here in the States are too hot. - "Nightbird" and the single "Breathe" both sound like trash due to all that distortion up top. I actually have to go to KSC-35 straight into the ipod headphone out to mask some of the nastiness. My Grado is too unforgiving of imperfections.

Ivy's "Guestroom" is like this too - not as bad, but some songs are a bit unbearable. I would have hoped on an indie label they would have cut some slack, oh well.

Really surprised by the Depeche Mode remix boxset. One of the heavy rotations now is World in My Eyes - Daniel Miller mix, because it's slammin but not recorded hot - high energy without high distortion. Miller knows what he's doing, long live Mute!