Garbage In, Garbage Out.
That acronym is used in the computer industry to mean if you feed the computer garbage data, that's what it'll spit out.
But GIGO can also apply to our music systems: bad recordings often sound worse on a High-End stereo.
Which, as a music lover, can be a shame.
We tend not to listen so much to bad recordings even if the music's great.
What's interesting to me is that the better my system gets there comes a point where that trend seems to reverse itself.
It's something immediately noticeable when you get a new DirectStream MKII in the system.
Instead of increasing the glare of a bad recording, the new DAC, as heard through the FR30s and BHK600s, renders formerly unlistenable tracks as not only listenable, but in many cases, quite acceptable.
Why?
My guess is that as electronics gets better, high levels of IM (that and compression are typically the cause of brash/bright recordings) no longer "upset" the analog circuitry.
That musical "garbage" in no longer produces musical "garbage" out.
