[potatoos]

As the tile implies, I am curious as to how others listen to bad recordings. Sometimes, you can't get a better quality recording.

I recently got into The Velvet Underground, and their recordings are pretty bad, but the music is amazing. So I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to how to best listen to these bad recordings.

Currently using Rockboxed Clip+ --> modded Superlux HD62F
These have quite a lot of detail in the play back, so my first thought was to use headphones with less emphasis on details.

Thoughts?

 

[TMRaven]

With rolled off treble preferably.  Those 'audiophile' headphones with the touch of treble spike to emphasize detail and crisp sound only blow bad recordings up.

 

[bigshot]

I don't know about bad recordings, because it depends on why they're bad. But with pre HiFi recordings (roughly before 1950) the midrange frequency response can make all the difference. An imbalanced response in the upper mids can make a record sound harsh or muffled, and too much or too little in the middle can make it sound strident or wimpy. Mono recordings sound fantastic with carefully balanced speakers.

 

[TMRaven]

The loudness only affects a loss of dynamics.  You can have a brickwalled mastering, but still have a good recording, and the HD600s will still make it sound good.  Radiohead's albums are brickwalled to an extent-- especially In Rainbows, but they still sound good.

 

[bigshot]

You could always listen to better music...

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

You could always listen to better music...

Better music or better recordings? We shouldn't confuse the two.

 

[Devarika Woulf]

Quote:

You could always listen to better music...

Nay. Who likes Justin Bieber over Black Sabbath? NAY!