Now, it is not the best recording that I have but it certainly isn’t terrible or even bad. I sure enjoy listening to it on my 2 channel system. I have never heard any of the other masterings with the much more compressed mastering. So those may indeed be horrific.
I always make sure to find the best mastering possible for any CD or SACD that I buy. I had a Boston self-titled release that I bough back in the 1990’s that was terrible. It was flat and boring. I sought out the “best” mastering and now I really enjoy listening to that album again.
My #1 priority is musicality! Resolution is nice but useless if I don’t want to listen to it and have to seek out audiophile music to make an analytical tuning sound ok.
Also I recognize that systems that point out “detail” are IMO very wrong. A system that encourages you to focus is BAD!
Edit, there’s is a Progressive spectrum to this:)
Similar to democrats/republicans/libertarians/populists…
Designing a system in the center of detail and musicality is the Art and Science!
Punch/dynamics/air/timbre/tonal density / tone color / imaging / PRAT.
This is a lot to get right all at once and not easy !
I had exactly the same idea for some years now. My old marantz sa11s2 player did everything pleasant with all masterings. But i decided to do streaming and that got me into troubles. First a linn akurate, indeed very revealing, but some music was unbearable. Did not do dsd either. Then the DSS. Big step in the right direction and sw changes reduced the amount of unbearable masterings with every sw change. Still some eighties cds were very bad. Last steps were improving the digital input to the DSsr. That’s where all should really invest in! Reject the computer in your system. I ended up with a Lumin mini / matrix / lps2 combo and it is wonderfull. At this moment all my music is bearable, and almost all are enjoyable. It can be done!
I’ll have to check. I think it’s at the office. It’s a 1986 release though and the album cover has “Greatest Hits” in white lettering, rather than the black lettering on the cover of the album in the Discogs link you provided.
@Elk: RE: your having trouble getting your mind around this problem…I suspect you have an inherent advantage b/c of your (IIRC) general disdain for often over produced pop and pop/rock. Journey is an acquired taste and/or holds a certain appeal for folks of certain age (i.e., coming of age in the 80’s). I think classical music may have a sense of “musicality” that does not lend itself to such scrutiny with lesser recordings. Just a theory…
I recall loving many of Journey’s more popular hits cranked up on boom boxes, FM radio and cassette players (in the car and in “stereos”). One of my favorites, “Wheel in the Sky”, was always a crank it up song in my youth. This cut on my Greatest Hits CD (really all of the tracks) is simply dissonant when played at any volume above low background in my system which is built around Anthony Gallo Acoustics Reference 3.1 speakers and the PSA DirectStream DAC. It suffers from a general mushiness/lack of detail and sense of actual instruments being played as well as, incongruently, a discordant/edginess that screams turn it down.
It’s kind of hard to explain, but you know it (and hate it) when you hear it.
Your hypothesis as to my difficulty relating to this as a problem makes some sense, certainly.
It separately we should not be too judgmental of those who find recording quality gets in the way of their ability to listen to the music. Yes, it is about the music - but everyone here is also listening to the equipment. Otherwise we would all be listening to little modest systems.
I was about to link the same review. What Darko says makes sense. If most modern music is designed to sound good on low resolution devices, perhaps it stands to reason that a more resolving DAC might show up the flaws in mastering - compression, fizzy top end, etc?
Time to sell the lot and buy a SPP and a nice turntable! I am kidding a little but think that generally if you select reasonable pressings almost everything I have brings a smile to my face when I play it.
I think a reality check is needed. Has anyone tried to listen to classical music on the tube / metro or even on a bus? Even good noise cancelling headphones can fail and earbuds are a waste of time. A lot of music has a very narrow dynamic range because: (a) producers and engineers understand that the greater part of their customer base listen to music on the move, and often in noisy environments; and (2) some bands just like to thrash away.
There are some rockers devoted to high quality production values and they tend to have their own studio, notably Mark Knopfler, also Dave Gilmour, Alan Parsons and perhaps top of the list Steven Wilson. Listen to any of the latter, whether solo, with Porcupine Tree and his many fabulous remasters - even @dancingsea would be impressed.
Classical music has generally been extremely well produced since the 1960s and any dislike I may have is more likely to be due to production decisions like mic’ing or balance between the musical parts.
There is plenty of popular music that has to be listened to properly and is produced to an extremely high quality, my recent favourite being Laura Marling’s latest album, but I was listening to a lot of Kandace Springs over the weekend.
So when @dancingsea gets all elitist about how everything should sound like his 400 DSD downloads, spare a thought for the 99.9% of other people who have enjoyed the music he can’t stand listening to as they walked down the street with their new Sony Walkman or Aiwa boombox.
I think you made my point. For decades many recordings have effectively been optimised for listening on car stereos and mobile devices, were done on the cheap or are poor quality compilations. And compilations have been massive money spinners.
The big drag is that these are built by hand by a builder with a backlog. . . it can take two to three months to get one in hand. I ordered one May 1 and yesterday got notice that it is on the bench. . . will probably be three weeks before it is here. I am used to this having ordered from Decware for more than twenty years, but for prospective buyers not knowing the quality they will receive (for sure) it’s hard to pull the trigger and wait.
You know these problems are usually solved very easily with a touch more bass/midbass?
Also, all of these problems are easily avoided if one uses a widely varied tuning mix of music from all genre’s and mastering styles.
No you can’t bandaid something truly atrocious, but i’ve only rarely ran into something like that anyway.
If someone tunes on jazz and classical and then puts on rock music they are going to have issues… and you know what, the jazz and classical probably sounded lifeless and overly detailed to begin with.
I disagree; a system should reproduce all forms of music well. Accurate is accurate.
Of course, there are practical, individual considerations. For example, if you listen only to chamber music you do not need the bass reproduction necessary to reproduce a pipe organ.
But a system which reproduces a full symphony orchestra well should also do a great job on rock.
If your system sounds harsh and brittle there typically is too much energy in the 2 - 5 kHz range. As this is the frequency range where our hearing is most sensitive it is critical to get this area right.
Of course, there are also recordings with excessive energy in this range - leading to the stabbed in the ear sensation at higher volume. A judicious EQ cut in this range will typically solve this.
By the way a gentle cut in the 1 - 4 kHz region is the Gundry or BBC dip historically applied in some BBC designed speakers which made them sound wonderful to the typical listener. Many adore the extra warmth and perceived musicality.
