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Bad recordings and great systems

— By Paul McGowan —
Bad recordings and great systems
We often think of the revealing nature of a great system as a double-edged sword: wonderful recordings sound better while poor ones sound worse. The idea of a system's ability to magnifying a recording's good and bad points is problematic when it comes to simply enjoying the music. This is why a lot of folks narrow down their musical choices. To the extent our systems bring us pleasure to enjoy all recordings can, in the end, be a good yardstick by which we measure success. Fortunately, it isn't always that black and white. In my experience, systems go through three evolutionary phases:
  1. Phase one we go from a mediocre consumer setup where nothing sounds great yet nothing sounds bad. Oatmeal.
  2. Phase two we have upgraded systems and setup so the great recordings sound spectacular and the poor recordings are exposed.
  3. Phase three we elevated performance such that truly great recordings are breathtaking and poor recordings don't irritate us—they can be appreciated for what they are without reaching to turn down the volume control.
Where is your system?

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