In Reply to: I dunno, man... posted by Presto on May 15, 2007 at 09:02:13:
Burn those straw men down! Burn, baby, burn!Assuming your post was not tongue-in-cheek . . .
Your analogy to wine and food lovers does not hold up. I don't know any music lover who buys records for "variety." I buy records for music.
In classical, several of my favorite performances happen to have iffy to execrable sound. So what? I'm not going to listen to a mediochre performance of a work I love just because it's in great sound--life's too short. My favorite Das Lied von der Erde has crummy sound. And I can't live without it.
In rock, you buy the music you love and take what sound quality you get. With old recordings sometimes you get lovely sound (Roy Orbison, Elvis). Sometimes you get crappy sound (Stones). With modern stuff it's hard to avoid the loudness race. Waddaya gonna do? Not listen to your favorite music?
With jazz at least you get pretty fair recordings most of the time, too few were interested in dicking with the sound. But if you like the early stuff you'll take your lumps there, too.
You listen to the performances/music you love; you takes what you gets with regards to sound quality. It has ever been thus. (Holt's Law: The quality of the recording is in inverse relationship to the quality of the performance.)
Meanwhile, with every upgrade to my system more records sound good than before. Who has time to listen to great recordings of lousy performances?
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Follow Ups
- Woohoo! - markrohr 09:28:40 05/15/07 (30)
- I never said that. - Presto 23:20:38 05/15/07 (17)
- You hit the nail on the head! Would you drink the beer you LOVE if it was WARM? - Teresa 00:53:35 05/20/07 (0)
- this seems completely artificial to me... - tunenut 22:51:26 05/16/07 (3)
- maybe you don't like the artists on Reference Recordings? Or the music? - Teresa 00:45:06 05/20/07 (0)
- Artificial? I think not. - Presto 10:56:19 05/17/07 (1)
- that's very idealistic - tunenut 11:19:00 05/17/07 (0)
- "This is not MUSICasylum. It's AUDIOasylum." ---Sez it all. - markrohr 10:18:28 05/16/07 (11)
- Well, you did say... - Presto 11:29:59 05/16/07 (10)
- Please, for goodness' sake, stop with the analogies already. - markrohr 13:46:59 05/16/07 (9)
- Well I don't drink beer anymore but... - Presto 17:11:45 05/16/07 (8)
- "I really don't think asking for both is as limiting..." I agree with you 100% also - Teresa 01:04:57 05/20/07 (0)
- So you won't listen to a great performance of a classical work, or a killer pop record, unless it sounds good. - markrohr 11:18:22 05/17/07 (6)
- with all the 100's of recordings this old MONO "Das Lied" is the ONLY one that has ever moved you. - Teresa 01:09:36 05/20/07 (0)
- That depends on how you feel about being called an audiophile I suppose!! :o) - Presto 16:55:14 05/17/07 (4)
- If "improvements" to your system make iffy records sound worse . . . - markrohr 05:32:18 05/18/07 (3)
- No, having more than one system is the ONLY direction - Presto 10:23:44 05/18/07 (2)
- Re: No, having more than one system is the ONLY direction - markrohr 12:01:26 05/18/07 (1)
- Re: No, having more than one system is the ONLY direction - Presto 13:38:28 05/18/07 (0)
- give me great music on a shitty recording any day! - hifitommy 18:45:30 05/15/07 (8)
- I prefer a third option: Great music on great recordings and I get it too! - Teresa 01:14:09 05/20/07 (2)
- thats wonderful when it happens - hifitommy 08:43:18 05/20/07 (1)
- Also great sounding are the multi-mic'ed Decca/London Phase 4 recordings conducted by Berrnard Herrmann. - Teresa 17:30:21 05/20/07 (0)
- Re: give me great music on a shitty recording any day! - Dave Pogue 05:23:11 05/18/07 (1)
- iec - hifitommy 11:44:31 05/20/07 (0)
- Emailed you last week - need your address fine sir to send CDs. [nt] - chris.redmond2@bushinternet.com 10:08:57 05/16/07 (1)
- ooopsy - hifitommy 20:06:49 05/16/07 (0)
- Absotutely! nt - clarkjohnsen 10:00:02 05/16/07 (0)
- "Who has time to listen to great recordings of lousy performances?" - musetap 11:22:46 05/15/07 (2)
- Quite correct, my great recordings of lousy performances go on eBay. (nt) - Teresa 01:17:04 05/20/07 (0)
- Well said. (nt) - Presto 11:01:21 05/17/07 (0)