[mcninja]

Not sure if this is the best place but I figured I'd start a discussion about why this happens. My guess are it having to do with something done during mastering or the general frequencies that the song usually hits. Anyone have other theories or information that could back up my guess? 

 

[wink]

Yeah, rotten sounds rotten no matter what you play it through......  

 
Great scales up as the reproduction chain gets more into high fidelity.......... 

 

[mcninja]

  Yeah, rotten sounds rotten no matter what you play it through......  

 
Great scales up as the reproduction chain gets more into high fidelity.......... 

I'm noticing that a lot of songs I have still sound good but there's only slight improvements when using an amp and good cans whereas with other songs the sound stage suddenly seems way bigger and I can hear instruments and other things in the background I've never heard before along with subtle tone changes, or sometimes there's a big change in overall sound of the song. So I guess when you say great or rotten you mean how well it was mixed/recorded? 

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Not sure if this is the best place but I figured I'd start a discussion about why this happens. My guess are it having to do with something done during mastering or the general frequencies that the song usually hits. Anyone have other theories or information that could back up my guess? 

 

It depends on mastering and material. Badly mastered combatants of the Loudness Wars have no real dynamic range to play with, so getting an amp with cleaner output and better current or voltage delivery isn't going to help beyond keeping distortion at the driver at bay. That said, a properly mastered but relatively simple track - like some audiophile vocal tracks that have barely anything else beyond the vocals - also don't have anything that would stress lesser systems compared to, say, a power metal track which is basically modern baroque.