Imaging and Detail.


I am curious as to what everyone feels is the best sound they can achieve from there cd players.
Do you prefer a highly detailed sound with exceptional imaging or do you prefere a more warm sound( some would call it muddled) that subdues the detail and give a more overall smooth listening experence but still retains most of the imaging?

I listen to alot of 70's rock.Led Zepplin, AC-DC,Pink Floyd,Allman Brothers,ect....
This music just does not sound right to me on a very detailed system.The music just does not flow for me with all the detail.Why does everyone put such emphises on all this detail?

With smooth jazz it is superb but with the stlye of music I prefere it is crap.
shaunp
I prefer and have a speaker and cable that is detailed and images well(Thiel/ANTICABLE) and love tight lows that distingush the bass guitar from the bass drum(JL Audio Subwoofer) and a warm sounding amp/preamp(McIntosh MC206/MX118/MX134
"If you want to listen to 70s rock recordings, you're better off with a less resolving vintage stereo system, IMO."

Hmm, can't agree with that logic.

I listen to a lot of that stuff on cd, remastered and otherwise, and it is most enjoyable, the best sounding ever on my current setup. If the vinyl and setup is good, that can also. If it doesn't, then something is wrong.

Coincidentally, I noted on my system page just the other day that having heard PF's WYWH on many systems over the years, my standard issue CD now sounds as good or better as I have ever heard it and I heave heard it on many systems vintage and otherwise over the years, so it serves as a good reference for me.
08-08-10: Mapman
If the vinyl and setup is good, that can also. If it doesn't, then something is wrong.
No. I don't agree with the statement that something is wrong. In fact, something is right. The system is revealing what's on the recording (if that's the system goal).

Many, many 70s recordings are bright, tizzy and downright annoying; EQ'd to car radios and portable radios. Led Zeppelin in particular...and I really like Led Zeppelin.

If Led Zeppelin sounds good on an audiophile system, then it's not an audiophile system in the common definition of an audiophile system.
If being an Audiophile means not listening to the music I love, I'll pass on being an Audiophile.. If you're doing the Audiophile thing while listening to Zepplin then I think either you need to turn it up or not listen to LZ when you're doing the Audiophool thing.. or maybe as Steve Winwood would say "either light up or leave me alone" By the way my Proac/Rel/Plinius/PS Audio/Cardas/Kimber/Shunyata, system sounds mighty good playing Zep,The Dead, Jackson Browne, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Dave Matthews, Coldplay, Marc Cohn, The Band, The Beatles, The Allman Bros, CSN, etc, etc, etc...