[hughwi]

Hey all,

I am the proud new owner of a pair of RS-1s, and am currently really enjoying them with my pico, but working my way through my collection, I was left in a state of shock after listening to about a minute of an Amy Winehouse track...

I could not believe how horrible it sounded! I wondered wether I had hit upon a freak occurance, so I grabbed my 325i's and double checked, indeed, HORRIBLE!

Is it just the fact that her studio engineers did not have a clue what they were doing, and it is really badly recorded? It was really sibilant and harsh, with large amounts of clipping. My HD650's appear to deal with the album a fair bit better, but I am now noticing things I hadnt heard before.

What do you think? and can you point me in the direction of your favourite album to listen to with the RS-1's

I am by no means an Amy fan or anything, it just suprised me how obviously bad the recording was, and how ruthlessly the RS-1s exposed it, I have plenty of Classic Rock albums you would also expect to be "hot" but they sound great!

 

[cakeman]

amy winehouse is crap. your headphones don't like them.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

...Do you want to borrow my flame-retardant suit?

 

[hughwi]

I would just like to reiterate my point, as I think I will need to borrow TheMarchingMule's suit otherwise. I am by no means a huge fan of Amy Winehouse, I just could not believe how bad it sounded... I mean how does an album like that get cut and released?

 

[lucky]

Amy Winehouse is a poor woman's Adele. Go listen to her instead.

 

[HiFi1972]

Another example of a good album that was mastered poorly. If you like the style of music (assuming you're talking about her Back to Black album), you should check out The Dap Kings (they provided all the backing music for her album). Their stuff on Daptone Records (lookup Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings on their own label) sounds great (they release their stuff on vinyl, 12"s, 45s and yeah, even CDs).

 

[LeftyGorilla]

They tried to make me go buy new cans, I said No, No, No...

 

[fjrabon]

One of the greatest tracks I've heard this year with a high quality rig is Furr by Blitzen Trapper. You can pick up on all these really subtle background effects, the vocal is actually two different takes and its a great measure of how good your ear is and how good your headphones are to pick out the differences in the vocal performance.

And the lyrics just knock you out and I'm generally not a lyrics guy.

Also, I'm a n00b here, but isn't this on the wrong part of the forum?

 

[fjrabon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiFi1972 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Another example of a good album that was mastered poorly. If you like the style of music (assuming you're talking about her Back to Black album), you should check out The Dap Kings (they provided all the backing music for her album). Their stuff on Daptone Records (lookup Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings on their own label) sounds great (they release their stuff on vinyl, 12"s, 45s and yeah, even CDs).

The Sharon Jones album, "Naturally" is dynamite on my SR60s. Another new album from that general neo-motown genre is Raphael Saadiq's last album, The Way I See It. For the vinyl freaks out there, its actually been released as 7 double sided 45s. It also sounds great on a pair of Grados because it has a ton of bass, that actually comes out just right (I think its a bit overbearing on some really basshead type 'phones).

 

[Doo Doo Brown]

It's a shame the Amy Winehouse album is mastered so poorly. There are some really great tunes on it, and she is (was) a huge talent. But that album is impossible to listen to for more than three or four songs.

I'll second recommendations for Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings--they record using vintage equipment to try and replicate the 60s soul sound--as well as Adele.

 

[ciphercomplete]

The better my equipment got the worse Amy Winehouse's album began to sound. The HD650s make the whole thing listenable at least. By the way, the HD555 are the perfect cans for Amy Winehouse.

 

[oldskoolboarder]

I went back to my old 'Frank' album. The master doesn't sound bad at all.

Though I prefer Frank to her current album. No one seemed to like her back then except me...

 

[nsx_23]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftyGorilla /img/forum/go_quote.gif They tried to make me go buy new cans, I said No, No, No...

I like that reference.

 

[imademymark]

i like diana krall's live in paris, her voice seems to resonate very well on the rs1s

 

[hughwi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldskoolboarder /img/forum/go_quote.gif I went back to my old 'Frank' album. The master doesn't sound bad at all. Though I prefer Frank to her current album. No one seemed to like her back then except me...

I used to really like the Frank album, I actually bought that a fair while ago before she took off, yes it is mastered much better than Back to Black, which is the album I was referring to!

Currently listening to Parliament - Mothership Connection, which sounds great