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What to do with bad recorded CDs

When I upgraded to Mcintosh and Accuphase - Kef speaker system, I am in heaven for the first time I started this hobby a decade ago.

I found my-self not even breathing, to capture every bit of nuance of the music... It was a great moment for me - and I am a professional musician. Rarely do I encounter such moments in live music !

Good Hifi can equal if not better live performance - for me.

But alas, heaven turned into he-- when I put on badly recorded materials. It revealed bad CDs to the point of me wanting to throw them away.

What do audiophiles do about that ? Go back to a lesser system to play these ? Or should I throw away great portion of my collection ?
gonglee3

Showing 2 responses by sgr

sgr's avatar
sgr
689 posts
 
Why not a machine that can uncompress and restore the recording to its original dynamics? It seems this should be possible.
It is a shame that bad recordings can't be returned. To me after I pay $15.00 for a CD (or more) and it sound is hideous I should be able to return it and buy a new CD (not a exchange it for the same one).

Bad news for you LP fans, I've purchased just as many records that were poorly recorded as CDS.

It is not the format, it is the recording engineer, artists, etc. Some labels are noted for poor recordings while others tend to get it right.

I propose a machine (something like a DAC) that would take the digital hi rez feed and then give the user a choice on how it is mixed for car, mp3, redbook, no compression, natural dynamics, etc. This would give the enduser the choice.
sgr's avatar
sgr
689 posts
 
Too bad my proposed machine to restore the dynamics on recordings might be difficult to achieve.

However it still is a shame to purchase music that you hear and like, and then bring it home to find it unlistenable because of the "recording choices". I've found this to be true with all recording formats and every type of music I purchase from ragtime to rock.

It doesn't seem to matter where I play such a title (in the car, home theater system, IPod, or the main rig) the performance (because of the recording) suck!

As a result, after being burned a few times, I never purchase another CD by that artist and I avoid the labels that typically produce such unlistenable horrors.

What happens next? The CD either is kept and never played, or traded at the local used CD shop. Sometimes the local CD shop doesn't even want them, because there is no demand.

I still consider recordings like this inferior products and believe the consumer should have the right to return and get a refund on such junk. Maybe then the artist, recording engineer, and label would get the message.
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