Best Speakers for Poor Recordings

xandra
xandra Posts: 291
edited August 2008 in Speakers
Have been on the upgrade warpath lately: fancy IC's (signal), speaker cables (audioquest), Amp (Parasound), Reciever (Denon) ....

Yes, sound quality has improved significantly on my better (sonically) CD's. BUT old, poor quality CD's (Aretha Franklin, Temptations, Stones and a few old Classical CDs) actually sound better on my teeny Creative computer speakers. Guess Clarity's not always such a good thing.

Been thinking of setting up one of my zones with some speakers I can blast to adjacent kitchen (where most gatherings at my place exist).

Any advice? I'd like something that's not likely to blow with a little volume.
(reciever outputs 130watts @ 8ohms)
LR Setup:
Polk RTi10's, RTi6's, CSiA6 (5 ch setup)
Onkyo 705 & Denon 3808ci Receiver, Onk 875
Parasound 2250 Amp
Sony 26" KDL series Bravia LCD
Panny DMR-EH75 Recorder
Panny DVD-F87 (5 disk DVD player)
NAD T585 (DVD/SACD)
Yamaha DVD-C961 (5 disk SACD/DVD)
SciAnt Explorer 8500HD Cable Box
Orig & 5Gen iPods, , Wii
Plans/Fantasies:
• 400 disk player that handles ALL formats, sounds as good as NAD with Panasonic interface & compatability.
Post edited by xandra on
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Comments

  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,812
    edited July 2008
    IMO, you need a new high quailty source. Garbage in, garbage out.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • Erik Tracy
    Erik Tracy Posts: 4,673
    edited July 2008
    Sometimes the 'truth' hurts, eh?

    I've noticed that as well with some of my classic rock vinyl and CDs as well.

    A poor recording can be disappointing on good gear.

    If the artist and selections are dear to you - then I'd look for better pressings, remastered CDs with good reviews, etc.

    Think of the step up in enjoyment when you can hear a favorite artist in stunning clarity on your new gear.

    I'll guarantee it'll bring a huge grin of sonic satisfaction to you! :D

    H9: If you don't trust what you are hearing, then maybe you need to be less invested in a hobby which all the pleasure comes from listening to music.
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  • McLoki
    McLoki Posts: 5,231
    edited July 2008
    Bose will make everything sound very similar - good and bad recordings.

    The bad will sound better than my LSi's. Good to average recodings will not even be close though.
    Mains.............Polk LSi15 (Cherry)
    Center............Polk LSiC (Crossover upgraded)
    Surrounds.......Polk LSi7 (Gloss Black - wood sides removed and crossovers upgraded)
    Subwoofers.....SVS 25-31 CS+ and PC+ (both 20hz tune)
    Pre\Pro...........NAD T163 (Modded with LM4562 opamps)
    Amplifier.........Cinepro 3k6 (6-channel, 500wpc@4ohms)
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  • Meeks32
    Meeks32 Posts: 330
    edited July 2008
    Cerwin vega's?
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  • McLoki
    McLoki Posts: 5,231
    edited July 2008
    Meeks32 wrote: »
    Cerwin vega's?

    Only if you consider crap better at a higher volume....
    Mains.............Polk LSi15 (Cherry)
    Center............Polk LSiC (Crossover upgraded)
    Surrounds.......Polk LSi7 (Gloss Black - wood sides removed and crossovers upgraded)
    Subwoofers.....SVS 25-31 CS+ and PC+ (both 20hz tune)
    Pre\Pro...........NAD T163 (Modded with LM4562 opamps)
    Amplifier.........Cinepro 3k6 (6-channel, 500wpc@4ohms)
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  • gidrah
    gidrah Posts: 3,049
    edited July 2008
    The best speakers you have. Embrace the poor recording. Consider it campy.
    Make it Funky! :)
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 34,018
    edited July 2008
    Best speakers to make an intrinsically bad sounding recording palatable? Quad electrostatics. I can only vouch for the original ESL-57s, but I suspect it's true of the current production Quad ESLs too.

    Not for high power nor cranking up, though (at least the ESL-57s).

    The original Polk "Monitor series" were pretty forgiving, as are the "classic British monitors" upon which they were modeled (e.g., KEF, Rogers, Chartwell).


    Worst speakers for poor quality source material?

    #1 Lowther fullrange drivers
    #2 Any Klipsch "Heritage" speaker (at least in their original incarnations)

    The above are fiercely unforgiving.
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  • xandra
    xandra Posts: 291
    edited July 2008
    F1Nut:
    IMO, you need a new high quailty source. Garbage in, garbage out.
    I agree about that, looking into new players, but my sense is most/all the improvement will be in with the better quality recordings.
    as McLoki's sayeth:
    The bad [recordings] will sound better [with Bose] than my LSi's. Good to average recodings will not even be close though.
    tho I'm not game to sink to bose (once picked some up for my laptop- can you say cacophony - at least it was a cheap lesson).

    mHardy: Some Good ideas, think you may be right about the Monitors (I had a pair years ago with a 50 watt denon amp, alas one died) - don't recall being as bothered by crapola recordings -- although that might be because I wasn't listening to SACD's in between the garbage.

    Erik: you're dead on target, in some cases I've found nicely remastered disks. I others, even remaster attempts are awful (occassionally worse than orig) I assume, that re-mastering is a loosing battle where original quality was so dreadful, that there's nothing to work with to restore, like trying to fix an awful over-compressed jpeg.
    LR Setup:
    Polk RTi10's, RTi6's, CSiA6 (5 ch setup)
    Onkyo 705 & Denon 3808ci Receiver, Onk 875
    Parasound 2250 Amp
    Sony 26" KDL series Bravia LCD
    Panny DMR-EH75 Recorder
    Panny DVD-F87 (5 disk DVD player)
    NAD T585 (DVD/SACD)
    Yamaha DVD-C961 (5 disk SACD/DVD)
    SciAnt Explorer 8500HD Cable Box
    Orig & 5Gen iPods, , Wii
    Plans/Fantasies:
    • 400 disk player that handles ALL formats, sounds as good as NAD with Panasonic interface & compatability.
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 34,018
    edited July 2008
    The ads L-710 (and many others) are also very forgiving of poor recordings.

    P1020547.jpg
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  • steveinaz
    steveinaz Posts: 19,538
    edited July 2008
    No source will improve a bad recording---SERIOUSLY. Bad is bad, and trying to fix it will lead to alot of "tail-chasing" TRUST me, been there done that.

    Bose 901's will hide alot of poor recording/digital nastiness, at the expense of accuracy, and a hokey soundstage. I speak from first hand knowledge as I owned them (901's) for 14 years.

    Having said that, when I look at my collection of CD's (about 750), I can honestly say that only about 1% of it is just plain aweful; about 15% of it poor; the rest being good to excellent. So I made the choice to live with the aweful/poor in exchange for the 85% good/excellent recordings...

    You're going thru what everyone goes thru when you begin to climb up the chain of hi-fi. Good components are like a microscope on recordings. The great sounds wonderful, the poor sounds terrible. It's the burden of being an audiophile. Wanna hear a real beer-coaster of a CD, try Nazareth "Hair of the Dog" talk about digititis and screech....yuk.
    Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amp: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi - Shop Rig: Yamaha A-S501 Integrated - Shop Spkrs: Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited July 2008
    I would recommend staying away from anything with a bright tweeter. LSI might be pretty forgiving. Hopefully someone with some LSI time will chime in.
    Ben
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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  • hearingimpared
    hearingimpared Posts: 21,136
    edited July 2008
    A good source can make even the worst CDs sound good; case in point, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda is horribly recorded but sounds great throught my Raysonic the same goes for my "best of Sweet" CD. I've heard them on lesser players and **** sounded good compared to them.

    +1 on the bright tweeter comment.
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited July 2008
    mhardy6647 wrote: »
    The ads L-710 (and many others) are also very forgiving of poor recordings.

    P1020547.jpg

    Always wanted to get my ears on those. I have some A/D/S stuff for the car:)
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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  • devani
    devani Posts: 1,497
    edited July 2008
    you will notice any imperfections on recording when listening to LSi....mp3 are not worth anymore....you can tell the difference in recording style and clarity
    Video: LG 55LN5100/Samsung LNT4065F
    Receiver: HK AVR445
    Source: OPPO BDP-93
    HT: POLK SPEAKERS RTi6, FXi3, CSi5, VTF-3 MK2
    2Ch system: MC2105, AR-XA, AR-2A, AR9, BX-300, OPPO BDP-83
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  • RutgersFTW
    RutgersFTW Posts: 458
    edited July 2008
    ben62670 wrote: »
    I would recommend staying away from anything with a bright tweeter. LSI might be pretty forgiving. Hopefully someone with some LSI time will chime in.
    Ben
    I agree the most with this. LSi are probably much easier to tolerate a bad recording than RTis, Monitors, or other "bright" speakers. Early CDs that weren't remastered to negate the RIAA equalization are already "hot," and when you combine them with a bright speaker it's almost unlistenable.

    In general a warmer speaker with a fat midrange will be easier to listen to with any source, particularly a poorly recorded one. Therefore, LSis should actually be much better than most.

    Though there is certainly some truth in the Bose recommendation too, as well as old boomboxes, crappy headphones (but not buds), or older 3-way floorstanding monsters with a lot of cabinet resonance like Realistics. They make almost everything sound the same which actually makes lousy recordings quite enjoyable.
    Currently listening to:

    Marantz SR5004
    Sony BDP-S370
    Apple TV V2
    Audio Technica AT-LP120
    Mirage CMD-5 x 5
    Bic H-100
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  • Systems
    Systems Posts: 14,873
    edited July 2008
    Buy a pair of La Scala's.

    Chuck
    Testing
    Testing
    Testing
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 34,018
    edited July 2008
    ben62670 wrote: »
    Always wanted to get my ears on those. I have some A/D/S stuff for the car:)

    I like all the vintage ads/Braun speakers I've heard. The 810 and 910 are probably 'better', but the 710s are what I've got, and they're awfully sweet.

    Best of all, they were freebies (found on the "yankee swap" pile at our town dump a few years back, in very good condition, grilles and all).
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 34,018
    edited July 2008
    stereo_luver wrote: »
    Buy a pair of La Scala's.

    Chuck

    umm, they'd be near the top of my list of worst speakers for poor recordings. Fine with good program material, though.
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  • Systems
    Systems Posts: 14,873
    edited July 2008
    I just like em' :)

    Chuck
    Testing
    Testing
    Testing
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 34,018
    edited July 2008
    Nothin' wrong with that!
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  • phxrider
    phxrider Posts: 58
    edited August 2008
    My vintage SDA 2B's and 1C's were pretty forgiving, I always thought. (Almost) everything sounds good on them. Same for the monitor series which I didn't own but have listened to quite a bit.
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