Can hi-fi be too good?

[RobHolt]

Walking through the Walthamstow market the other day and I passed a stall selling reggae/dub CDs. Music was being played on an old 80s NAD amp/CD player and a pair of unrecognisable bashed-up old loudspeakers tucked away on the floor.

It sounded excellent!
This big, rich reverberant sound filing that area of the market and it was flattering to what were quite mid-fi recordings.

I've noticed the same thing with the sort of compressed to a pulp chart music played on Radio 1/2 and Capital, which actually sounds better through a decent portable radio than a good hi-fi.

So can a hi-fi system be too good?

 

[Werner]

Have you read Greg Milner? IIRC there is a chapter on the birth of reggae that pretty much explains what you experienced.


Or this here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_system_(Jamaican)

 

[mjp200581]

I always think that a good Hi-Fi can make good production/recording sound extra special but it can also highlight bad production/recording.

Here's another question:
If your favourite album from say the '70's was mastered and recorded to sound at it's best on '70's kit, does that mean it won't sound as the artist/producer intended it to sound on modern kit?

 

[pete693]

I don't think Hi-Fi can ever be too good. I do think that it can be inappropriate.
With very very few exceptions I can't remember many occasions when I have really enjoyed listening to the radio on Hi-Fi.I have the choice of AM,FM and DAB.I have FM in the car and it always sounds better than the system at home.
I have come to the conclusion that I belong to some kind of niche audience and the transmissions are not meant for the likes of me.
Studio speech I find the most irritating.As soon as the microphone in switched on it sounds as though the fan/air conditioning is on the blink.The speech when it does come is totally dead and lifeless.
It never used to be like this .What went wrong?

 

[RobHolt]

I don't think Hi-Fi can ever be too good. I do think that it can be inappropriate.

I think that sums it up very nicely.

 

[Labarum]

HiFi must surely be "too good" when the replay chain uses significantly more expensive engineering than the studio recording chain.

 

[Joelsim]

It can definitely be too good.

The next morning anyway. Bleugh!

 

[DSJR]

Currently, the pretty rubbish 6-CD car system (Ford Focus mk1) gets 95% of my music listening. Thing is, the sense of bass impact, if not the quality due to panel 'boom,' is superb. Many domestic stereos tend to have a flabby waffle for bass and I remember being blown away by some mid size JBL's many decades ago, although their midrange couldn't hold a candle to the best of british at the time