Good Achtung Baby CD? I got a bad one.

Thanks gosta. Although I am a new audiophile and don't have a lot to compare my system to in regard to other equipment, I understand that the system I have is decent. (Audio Research LS16 tubed line stage, Proceed HPA2 amp (Mark Levinson) and Aerial Acoustics 7B tower speakers.

Reviews of the LS16 and the speakers suggest that they are not bass heavy.

I do not hear the system as bass heavy with other recordings. Just the opposite sometimes. In other well recorded media (Aja by Steely Dan) I would say the bass is perfect for me. I'd even use the word luscious. 

Anyway, there is a chance that it is just a matter or my taste having changed I guess.

That's why I believe Achtung Baby could be better to judge the quality of the speakers than Aja. Everything will sound fantastic with Aja. it's that
kind of audiophile recording. 

Yes, I saythe speakers because the rest of the chain matter to a degree but the speakers decides what you hear. And naturally the room. Why not try to move around the speakers and see what happens with the sound and the separation in the bass.

It seems odd to me that it requires a better speaker to cope with what by all accounts is a CD that is not particularly well produced (comparatively). It seems to me (but I am a beginner) that everything in the chain has to be at a certain quality level to achieve optimum SQ.

But, maybe SQ is not the right term. This CD might have the exact SQ U2 was after but the SQ they were after is what you would hear in a giant room full of dancing people with throbbing, pulsing base where subtlety has no place. And that's just not my taste anymore. And worse, I hear people talk of 'listening fatigue' and that seems to be the effect I get from this album.

Anyway, my speakers seem to be in the right position for well produced sources like Aja, Dire Straits, Wish You Were Here, Hemispheres (Rush) and the bulk of what I listen to, including a number of classical pieces like Saint-Saens' Symphony No. 3 for organ with its literally room shaking bass that is still clear and precise.

My speakers weigh #120 pounds and are on spikes. I could try to get them even further out from the wall but that seems like a lot of trouble. 

I am also not in this hobby as a pursuit of anything greater than what I already have. So the equipment I have is all there is going to be. So I'm stuck with U2 as they are as well I'm afraid.

But, one afternoon when I its rainy outside and my wife isn't home I might just attempt an Achtung Baby system tune up and move those speakers around and even some furniture!

Not necessarily better speakers but speakers that are quite balanced from top to bottom especially in the lower registers because the album Achtung Baby has a lot of energy below 100Hz. That is also very complicated because the room interacts a lot with the speakers in that register. Not easy if you have lare fullregisters to move around. One solution is then, which I apply , to use studio monitors in a more close-filed listening position (in front of my working place). Instead of moving the speakers try to place yourself in different positions in the roo, just to hear how the sound changes in the bass register. I also got good results, but not perfect at all, with my ATC 150 in a more farfield position.

For recordings like Aja and the even superior recording of Gaucho it is if not easy so at least much easier to achieve a good result. They have a much more simple setting of individual instruments and are recorded with a much dryer bass. 

Also remember that Achtung Baby was recorded by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. You actually need to be in the studio with them to understand what they are doing....Search for Daniel Lanois and you will find some truly fantastic recordings and real challenges to any, even the best, HIFI systems. But Achtung Baby may be the most complicated. Thanks for your tip!

ps. A room correction system is always helpful like DSpeaker Antimode 2.0 and similar. I micht soon try a Trinnov

What recording of the Saint-Saens' organ Symphony do you prefer?