I was going to say similar before I got to your post HH, so I wholeheartedly agree. Shoddy recordings still sound less good than wonderfully engineered ones, but somehow you ‘hear into’ them more and understand the shortcomings enough to realise you are hearing it ‘as good as it gets’ - a faithful warts and all rendition.
If the music is great then that still shines through.
G
Or worse Diana Krall. Exactly my feelings. I don’t listen to music to hear the quality of the recording or the sq of my system, it’s because it’s great music I want to listen to nothing can change that. Sometimes I wonder that people have the wrong priorities when listening to music on these and other forums and hifi gets in your way of enjoying it for what it is.
OK but there must be a reason we all don’t just buy a MuSo Qb and leave it at that.
BTW, I love my Qb and can happily enjoy music of any recording quality on it.
I guess my point is that there might be diminishing returns for some from better and better kit due to limitations of the ‘quality’ of material.
I actually like Diana Krall, especially her very early albums before she blanded out. There’s one called Stepping Out, and also Only Trust Your Heart. She was more of piano player who sings at that time and not airbrushed at all. You may like it.
The emotional connection to the music still improves with the higher kit, even if the recording is not brilliant. It’s the same old music vs hifi debate. It’s all too easy to forget why we have good systems. Do we buy better ones to get us closer to the music? Or do we buy great sounding music to show off the system? Perish the thought that it’s the latter but judging by some posts, that’s what a lot of people seem to do. Why do people still post system pictures with DSOTM in them, 50 years after it was released? It seems to show a distinct lack of interest in discovering music.
Indeed.
It would be interesting to hear what you felt you gave up, if anything, as you downgraded your system.
For instance I was a bit surprised to read that removing your PS555DR from your NDX2 did not lead to any significant loss of SQ. I remember it was that emotional connection you describe that was enhanced greatly when I added a PS555DR to my NDS back in the day.
I do however realise your hearing has been compromised in recent years.
And Norah Jones.
Fascinated if you play the Smiths and let us know what you think
Can’t dis The Smiths at the moment, HH is about!
I’ve listened to enough to know she’s not my cuppa a tea, neither is Dire Straits or Pink Floyd.
With more resolving kit you hear more of the recording, including what’s wrong with it. I find some aspects of poor recordings distracting at higher volumes but turning it down takes the edge off and its fine. Save cranking the volume for the good stuff 
@Petersfi has just posted an interesting article on this subject.
Link - New music is trending down
II am always on the hunt for new music, but new music to me isn’t necessarily new to everyone else or new as in just released. But I do listen to more newer material for the most part. It’s all part of the journey discovering stuff you missed first time or second time around and finding something nobody else has heard, the latter becoming harder given today’s medium of streaming.
It should be like looking at a great oil painting.
The more closer you look the more you can see the hand and weave.
If it sounds crap - that’s how it was intended to sound.
Life isn’t always a bed of fresh roses.
Some grit,smear,distortion,wonkyness and other agitated artefacts can be an intended influence.
You really hate those, don’t you?
But they are awful.
(heads for cover)
I have the (delayed) 50th anniversary ‘What’s Going on’ on pre-order. I also have a copy of the LP already (not an original) and it’s a pretty average reproduction of a great album, in my view.
The 50th has been remastered by Kevin Gray, from the original analogue tapes. This gives me hope based on his Tone Poet work. I’m convinced a fair few LPs are poor quality reproductions rather than poorly recorded in the first place. We shall see.
I don’t find that having better equipment makes poorly recorded music less enjoyable - generally far from that.
There are several aspects, I think. One is familiarity. With music that you remember or have lived with for a long time - that your really loved as a youth - the better system takes nothing away, and adds something. If it is music you love, then you will love it however you reproduce it.
I have a lot of recordings from the mid-1960s onwards, usually on reel-to-reel, sometimes on cassette. Sometimes copied from one recording to another. Quality can be really poor. But I still love it. Often, I find original recordings (or digital copies of them) on the 'net, and they are technically far better - and I like those too. But the original, terrible copies that I made are something special. It’s very strange.
But I guess if you find that better equipment makes old recordings unlistenable - get a cheap system as well, and play them on that. Should work.
But a good hifi lets good recordings show stuff that poor hifi cannot.
Hi Nigel, good thread.
A better-resolved higher end system will always be a double-edged sword.
But there’s nothing like good hifi in a dedicated listening room. In knowing badly recorded stuff, I can spend more time listening to the better recordings which give me goosebumps and more enjoyment.
All things considered, since I prefer the deeper connection to the essence of the music through a better system than not, I will spend what I can. Good hi fi when set up carefully provides me with invaluable reference points. I like the idea that if I am able to discern good sound from average or poor sound, I’m still in the pink of health… like a litmus test. Without these reference points, a Bluetooth speaker will do just as well as a pair of Air Pods for general music enjoyment.
I won’t stay on poor recordings as they will never be a priority since they don’t get me closer to the music.
Cheers
Phil P
Not at all. I own and like DSOTM, but am perplexed when people show it so often in their photos. You’d think they’d try to demonstrate a little imagination, rather than a hoary old chestnut. As to Dire Straits, I love their first album, and will admit to liking Brothers in Arms. But as for their rubbish where hifi obsessives debate whether it’s one or two smashing bottles, well….
I have to confess that I’m currently listening to the rather wonderful Waits/Brennan remaster of Tom Waits Nighthawks at the Diner, released in 1975.