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How to avoid wasting money on bad recordings?

P

PhilP

pfm Member
I've bought a significant number of CDs over the last year or so that are basically too badly recorded to listen to on my Hi-Fi (too harsh, bright or strangely dynamically compressed)

In almost every case I know I like the music usually because I've heard it elsewhere or I already have it vinyl.

I can play and enjoy most of the CDs in my car so they're not a complete write-off but to be honest I wouldn't buy so many if that was only the only place they sound good.

Ideally I'd like to avoid buying the bad recordings in the first place - is there any reliable source of comment/review of the recording quality of CDs as opposed to the music on them?

Thanks,

PhilP
 
I always have a look at amazon.com as opposed to amazon.co.uk, the US site usually says if the CD has been remastered(some being better than others), the UK site usually dosen't. hope this of some help Jon

I just got Joni Mitchell's The Hissing of Summer Lawns on CD, i couldn't wait for the remaster to come out, even though the music is wonderful it sounds like the recording is taken from an LP being played on a Amstrad music center of the same vintage as the original album, i can even hear a few clicks and pops on some of the tracks!
 
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I have nearly stopped buying pop/rock CD's altogether because of the maniac compression used today in the "mastering".

Instead I have discovered the wonderful world of jazz. Here most of the times the musical instruments are recorded as they sound in the real world. But I have to say that some of the compression madness seem to have filtered through on one or two very recent recording.

JohanR
 
Now how do I just know you're racing a £50 CDP against quite decent TT's and wondering why the CDP sounds crap ????

The correct solution is to buy a better CDP
 
i got these five CD's through the post this morning including the Joni Mitchell one above. Sound quality wise it goes something like this..

1, Joni Mitchell, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, recorded from an Amstrad turntable

2,Tom Waits, Rain Dogs, compressed.

3,The Bad Plus, Give, Awesome.

4, Sonic Youth, Day Dream Nation, terrible my fillings have fallen out.

5, Willy Mason, Where the Humans Eat, brilliant hes in the room!

2 out of 5 not bad?
 
colasblue said:
Now how do I just know you're racing a £50 CDP against quite decent TT's and wondering why the CDP sounds crap ????

The correct solution is to buy a better CDP
Click to expand...

You might well be right that the solution is to buy a 'better' CDP.

I currently have a Naim CDX2 and I'm experimenting with various tweaks trying to get rid of the harshness. If these don't work then I will try other CDPs...

I have a 25 year-old LP12 which I'm just bringing properly back into service - it will be interesting to see how it compares against CDs.
 
RJohan said:
I have nearly stopped buying pop/rock CD's altogether because of the maniac compression used today in the "mastering".

JohanR
Click to expand...

I like most types of music but enjoy Rock/Dance most of all. I've recently bought some re-mastered CDs and these are almost without exception terrible - Stones, Bowie, Jethro Tull.

One exception was Deep Purple 'Machinehead' Anniversary Edition. I hadn't heard the original for probably 20 yrs but went through Montreux the other day and it reminded me of smoke on the Water.

A lot of the hip hop recordings which sound great on the TV/in the car sound awful on the HiFi.
 
I find that very few of the CD's I own sound harsh, its not harshness for me its just some recordings sound fantastic, and some you know could be way better, ive got a lot of cd's from late 80's early 90's which just sound very compressed, i think thats the thing i notice most.
 
4, Sonic Youth, Day Dream Nation, terrible my fillings have fallen out.
Click to expand...

In all fairness that is what that album is designed to do! I love it, though have the double vinyl, not the CD.

Tony.
 
Tony, True, but compared to Washing Machine and Murray Street on CD which sound amazing, Day Dream Nation sounds like the band has shrunk in size to the size of GI Joes! 1988 a bad vintage for CD's , I bet it sounds great on LP though
 
Daydream isn't a hifi record, it was an aesthetic decision to record it that way. You can't compare murray st to daydream, it's a folky album with very little distortion etc. course it's going to sound different. Washing machine is different again, they're just approaching different things in different ways.

Something is wrong if you find music sounds THAT bad.
 
This guy is pretty good, a recording engineer who has a beef about overly compressed recordings. His tastes are Americana/Folk, some R&B, soft jazz etc but he's bang on (IMO) in term of sound quality. A lot of artists you may not have heard of but they are usually readily available on the Internet Amazon etc.

His last paragraph for each review concentrates on sound quality.

Cheers
Mike
 
One exception was Deep Purple 'Machinehead' Anniversary Edition.
Click to expand...

It's very good! But it was done 10 years ago, before the current max compression trend had developed.

One can't remedy over compressed records wit a 'better CD player', the compression doesn't disapear. But, strangely enough, over compression is actually less disturbing on a system with good dynamics. Something I can't explain.

JohanR
 
Miiikey said:
This guy is pretty good, a recording engineer who has a beef about overly compressed recordings. His tastes are Americana/Folk, some R&B, soft jazz etc but he's bang on (IMO) in term of sound quality. A lot of artists you may not have heard of but they are usually readily available on the Internet Amazon etc.

His last paragraph for each review concentrates on sound quality.

Cheers
Mike
Click to expand...
Oops forgot the link

http://www.georgegraham.com/reviews.html#thereviews
 
Anex, dont get me wrong id rather listen to incredible music on a poor CD, than some crap music on a hifi disc. But just to give one example, I have two version of The Stooges CD Funhouse, the old one and the new remastered one, the new one sounds like the band are playing in the room, but its still totally raw, the older cd sounds very poor in comparison.
 
Fair enough. I don't find the daydream nation (LP) recording that bad either though, or the CD, its just the sound of the record. Given the choice of one or the other I wouldn't pick a bad recording but its not something I find worth getting hung up over :) I don't find washing machine worth getting hung up over either though ;)
 
I recall reading an interview with the engineer involved in the recent Dirty and Goo remaster/reissues. He claims that part of the problem (with the early Geffen releases at least) was that they were mixed by engineers off their tits on the Peruvian stuff...

BTW expanded Daydream reissue (2xCD, 4xLP) should finally see the light of day at some point this year. :)
 
PhilP,

The site below is run by Steve Hoffman, an American Mastering Engineer (he mastered for DCC amongst others).

The forum has has a lot of information as to the best LP pressings, the best CD versions etc as well as general discussions on music and audio and has nearly 11,500 members.

Well worth visiting.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/
 
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