[MD1032]

I guess it really depends on what you want. You can either want a "live" feeling, or a different feeling that ou deem "better".

And then there are the majority of the people my age (high school) who don't know stock headphones from HD600's. Its pretty sad and scary. I really don't get those people. They don't even wear their headphones, they just dangle them around their neck and throttle up on the volume until it makes enough noise.

$%^ 3^#^#& 77&&*^&*^&#$&$&!!!!!!!!!! I had a dream last night that my mom bought me some HD600's. I woke up and I was just like "DAMN IT!!!"

 

[KellDammit]

from what i understand, the rule of thumb for a sub is "if you notice it, it's too loud". heh. i think the idea was for it to be a nice, subtle enhancement. personally, in my car, i'd rather not have my head driven into the dash at every kick beat...

level rules for mastering...there are none that i'm aware of. you are limited only by the amount of compression you can apply, assuming you don't concern yourself with dynamics or overall sound quality. most consumers don't really listen to music anyway (as evidenced by their tolerance/embracing of a dearth of copycat artists, the "louder is better", and "bass should make my chest cave in" phenomena), so it's pretty much a moot point.

if i understand correctly, lots of artists record "hot". there are probably very few who don't/haven't. it's one of the oldest tricks in the book for analog recording. tape will compress and distort when it's overdriven...the overall sound is "warm" and often desirable (particularly for distorted guitars). if it's a digital recording, there isn't really any benefit to it that i'm aware of, other than trying to bury the noisefloor of whatever gear you've plugged in...

kell

 

[Jam_Master_J]

Almost all people my age (18) are ignorant about good sound. My friends asked me about my stereo and they started asking me about my sub. I told them about it (it is a 15" Tempest in a 194 liter enclosure). Well they came by to listen to some music and they were very disappointed. They didn't even know it was on, which I always thought was a good thing. They seemed to think since I had this huge sub I would just be blasting boomy bass. They actually like those JVC gigatube systems better than mine

 

[zeplin]

jam master,
man those kind of things piss me off. knowing that your friends could be experiencing so much better, or at least become aware that it's out there. but, they don't even want to listen. even some of my friends who love music and live by it, don't beleive my lectures on how high quality sound play back can bring so much more to the music. i've converted one friend to realize how important good sound can be. you just have to keep trying

 

[MD1032]

To me, there are two things that are crucial for listening:

1) DETAIL
2) SOUNDSTAGE (especially in speakers)

That's one of the things I liked when I upgraded my crap-o Z-540's to my PM4.1's. For once, I didn't have this little rattling thumping thing under my desk! The bass was THERE. It was well-placed and was incorporated into the music instead of being heard as this thumping fuzzy thing. For once, I could just sit in my room, turn the volume at a moderate level, unequalized, and simply enjoy the music as if I was there at the concert. It's no RF-7 rig, but it sure as heck is believable in comparison to the crap I had before. I believe that the ideal system should just sing by itself. You should just be able to turn off the equalizer and feel like you're there. Still, people my age in high school can stand having this thump-thump monster in their cars and blast it all the time.

My friend came over my house and liked my speakers and kept demanding that I turn up the subwoofer. The needle was at 1/2 and the little dot telling you where you shouldn't ideally turn it past is at 1/3. I usually keep it at 1/4 or below. He just kept turning it up until the port noise was so completely unbearable I shut it off and gave him a good long talk about blowing out your eardrums, and touching my stuff.