JRNYMAN wrote:Jonny B wrote:I'm mostly stuck with what I have now. Hand-me-downs fixed by my bro who used to fix electronics. My current equipment is but a crummy Optimus Amp, and a pair of Sears stereo speakers (which are rated for a number of amps that's higher than the Optimus Amp can handle. So should I ever upgrade, I won't need a new set of speakers.) I'd be afraid to upgrade, only because I've heard some of my favorite albums on an all-out awesome stereo system, and I sadly discovered the audio productions of said albums were utter muddy garbage.
Ahhh, but have you heard the "remastered" versions of said albums through a decent system? That makes all the difference in the world!
One of my buddies is the manager of the custom install division of a high-end audio/video company which caters to the wants and needs of serious audiophiles. He has several mix cd's/dvd's which he uses to demo the abilities of various systems. He'll play snippets of various songs on a client's current system then play the exact group on their new system after it's installed and configured and the differences are staggering! And all because of the abilities of the decoders and logic processors.
One track in particular will always stand out in my mind because, even after warning me ahead of time, I still blew the woofers on a pair of speakers! On a lower-end system that doesn't have the decoder and processor it's no problem whatsoever because it's as if the info encoded in the song doesn't exist. But through a system that does.... He told me "before you play this song, be sure to level out your bass and treble or even reduce them to below flat and adjust accordingly AFTER you hear how things sound."
Yeah, right! Give me a break! I've got a kick-ass system and have never had to back the sound or any of the audio settings down. MISTAKE! I use a 12 ch. graphic eq and have my audio configured with lots of low-end which, with the help of my subs, deliver a nice broad-spectrum sound. The spacialization present was detected and delivered via my amp to my speakers which couldn't handle the ridiculously low Hz and within 30 seconds or so, both cones detached themselves from the drivers!
The song is Bali Run by FourPlay. Great jazz tune!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slprjz11Ds0
For the most part, I stick to rock and metal. But a lot of the modern bands seem to have this love affair with audio compression that gives a muddy sound, doesn't seem to matter if it's because they're on a limited budget or if they do so purposely. I have a friend who has the best equipment you can get for an audio system. Everything is commercial grade Sony/Mackie brands, $1K+ kind of stuff that you'd probably find more commonly in a studio than on a home stereo system. He has 3 vintage 70's/80's amps driving the highs, mids, and lows respectively. How loud can it go? How crisp is it? How broad the spectrum? In his words, a Josh Groban concert was the only system that outperformed his stereo. Yeah, it's that good.
I got him hooked on some of the female rock albums that I listen to (he goes mostly for audio production and not how good the music is,) and it surprised me when I heard them on his system how some albums were spectacular while others weren't so great.
The following below is a sampling of albums I introduced him to and how he graded the audio.
These albums got the poorest grade:
Delain "April Rain" (This was my Album of the Year in 2009, so I was very disappointed the widespread audio clipping throughout the album.)
All Lacuna Coil post-Comalies (mud mud mud.)
Elysion "Silent Scream" (same deal, but at least they have the excuse of being a newcomer.)
Within Temptation "The Silent Force" (Very spotty, some good produced-tunes, but you could tell they didn't have the budget to make it better.)
We Are the Fallen (more mud.)
All the After Forever stuff (ditto.)
These albums got a mid-grade for their production:
Everything done up by Nightwish (They have the biggest budget of all the groups I listen to but there was a little bit of audio compression present in every album. Plus, the vocals sometimes got lost in the mix, especially on the live albums and the most recent 'Imaginaerum' album.)
Within Temptation "The Heart of Everything" (You can tell that they made some money on their previous effort, because the audio production is much improved.)
Sirenia "The 13th Floor" (Nothing fancy production-wise, but the mix is very even and the lows go fairly low.)
Everything done by Evanescence (Audio compression is the issue. Not muddy but enough for it to be noticeable.)
These albums the highest praise for their production:
Within Temptation "The Unforgiving" and "An Acoustic Night at the Theatre." (Two of the VERY few albums he gave a perfect 10 out of 10 on his stereo. The lows go VERY low on the acoustic album...and 'The Unforgiving' could give some of the best-produced analog-recorded 80's vinyls a run for their money. His words.)
Lacuna Coil "Comalies"
Sirenia "The Enigma of Life" (Surprised me because he hates grunts, but the title track is surprisingly clean for a group on a limited budget.)
Delain "Lucidity" ('The Gathering' sounds fantastic.)
Amanda Marshall "S/T" (Not a fan of her music, but "Beautiful Goodbye" was one of those very few where you could give an 11 out of 10 for audio production. Her voice is fantastic on a big stereo.)
....
While we're on the topic of stereos....A lot of groups have released limited edition vinyls in the past few years for those audio-buffs, but on a limited budget, I never botherer to see if the audio production was different for a vinyl copy than, say, some of the cds that ended up in the 'mud' category. Or do they just do a carbon copy onto vinyl with no audio differences. Most of the groups who do a vinyl edition don't say either way. I had a theory that maybe audio production is so advanced now that most cds can't handle the production, thus producing the 'muddy' sound. Might be worth checking into.
) And before we all got our very own audio system, most of us probably relied on whatever our parents had. In my case, it was a Magnavox console stereo system with a turntable, AM/FM tuner, 8-Track player and 2 speakers, all built in to one big unit that actually constituted a piece of furniture. And surprisingly, it would crank out the tunes fairly loudly!
And sooooooooooooooooooo expensive!! 
.preview.jpg)
