Imaging and Detail.

The recording is the recording.

70s rock recordings were commonly mixed and EQ'd to fit the response curves of AM & FM car and portable radios of the time. This is where the songs received the initial airplay that sold albums. Often this meant that the highs and mids were boosted to come across better on the small car and portable radios.

This was taught in one of the early recording classes I took at S.U. when I was studying broadcasting.

So, if the recording sounds good on a system, then it's likely this system has a frequency response that somewhat mirrors the peaks and dips typical in the radios of the time.

I don't think this correlates to one system being better than another, but it does correlate to a system that happens to better match the EQ'ing on those recordings.

Most of these recordings are far from perfect. In the words of the great poet Frank Zappa, they "are what they is".

I consider myself quite fortunate that almost every recording I play sounds good to me these days and the great recordings sound great, regardless of genre. I think my audio goals have finally been achieved again for the first time in years since I moved into my current home.

Tvad. that is interesting point. i remember when i was younger working a couple summers for a friends at his recording studio, and he would like to take a cassette out to his pickup to "hear what its going to sound like".

... he would like to take a cassette out to his pickup to "hear what its going to sound like".

Oakleys (Answers | This Thread)

Exactly right. In college, we'd mix on small Auratone speakers that were designed to mimic car stereo speakers, even though the studio was equipped with top-of-the-line JBL studio monitors.

Later, when I was supervising edit sessions at a television network, we occasionally played the mix through Auratone speakers to hear how it'd sound at home on one's TV.

I agree with Tvad.As a guitarist/ band guy playing and recording (late 1970s through the mid 1990s)any studio I was ever in mixed through highend monitors then listened through junk basically to see how it would sound to the masses.The band would then take the pre press home for a week and listen to it in all different levels of gear,mostly low end because thats what most had.It had to sound good on low level gear, higher level systems wasnt a concern.