Is it my Music or my Speakers?

[Mr. Widget]

I have read so many posts where people have said, "My new monitors are so revealing, only the finest recordings sound good." Or some similar statement. I may have even made it at one time... I know that I have certainly had speakers that sounded amazingly good with some discs and not so inspired with others.

Over the years as my speakers and system have gotten progressively more accurate, the number of disappointing discs has shrunk. Sure, there are some recordings that are lifeless and compressed to death and others that were recorded in a train station with Radio Shack mics, but it has dawned on me that the 70's notion of "Rock Monitor" and "Classical Music Speaker" may be true of that era, but with todays more refined systems, you really can have a system that pulls out the magic from almost any recording.


Widget

[Hoerninger]

The better the equipment the better we can see through the curtain of technical gear. It comes down to how it has been produced.

There have always been highlights:

1.
Although mono the recording of the Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert 1938 is very beautiful. It was made with three mikes in a good audience.
Unfortunately there seems to be no remastered version. The old LPs sound dull (no attack in the drums) and the newer Sony edition has nasty spikes.

2.
In the fifties there were made many quality recordings. Think of BMGs LIVING STEREO series both as CD and SACD. There are many older jazz recordings new released.

3.
When I visited an Array 1400 demonstration they played Pretend by Nat King Cole. (The speaker claimed it was a recording from the thirties. :dont-know ) Although mono the singer was standing right in the room! I am inclined to say: Unforgettable.

With their demonstration they made a time journey of music. There were great differences in the quality of the recording process hearable. (Fortunately many pieces were known to me.)
Especially those from the seventies were not so nice in my ears.
When they turned over to the Everest II there were used quality recordings all over. ;)

Just my 2cts.
____________
Peter