The relevance of the source using good or bad recordings on revealing loudspeakers

For some reason I feel the need to understand what a better Cd player / streamer does to help the listener to drag trough the crap to make it less distracting and not just that a great player does it better - which I immediate believe.

- for me - when I had CD5x ->CDX2->CDS3->CD555: each player had elements it excelled at and therefore certain recordings sounded excellent whilst others seemed to have limitations. Each step on the ladder kept he excellences of the previous player and added more, so now more music sounded better. 

Some recordings that I thought were suboptimal turned out not to be at all. 

What I always wanted was a system to make as much as possible of my collection to sound as good as possible, further down the source ladder my system was deciding what sounded good, further along the road there are very few recordings (brickwalled excepted of course ) that don't give their all  

I would seriously consider skipping CD replay and moving to hard disc music. 

My CD555 was sold as it was getting no use once I got a Hugo TT and Roon. You can improve your source dramatically with comparatively little outlay. 

.sjb

Ardbeg10y posted:

Regarding the system, it sounds far, far superiour to my CD5i(talic) >> Supernait 1 + Hicap DR into B&W CM5 S2's.

I almost cannot listen to my first system. Never thought a loudspeaker upgrade was such a massive step. And I never thought a CD5i can be that good.

... and I admit, the source is the weakest link currently ...

Question remains: why and how can a better, more revealing CD player also be more forgiving. What does the trick on the CDS3 and CD555? The only thing I can see is that the Dac detects e.g. sections having relatively much noise or compression and operates differently on these sections.

The first observations encapsulate my own experience when I went hunting for decent speakers as a major upgrade a little over 40 years ago, and was amazed at how very different every one of the dozen or so models I auditioned sounded, all in what was then a fairly expensive price bracket (equivalent to about £2-2.5k today). It brought home to me how far from perfect speakers are as transducers, with far, far greater influence on the sound, and so potentially on the enjoyment of the sound, than any other components compared at any given price point. Speakers therefore remained as a primary focus of my system from then until now, though in fact only two changes in all that time, the most recent only last year.

However, although not top flight I have been using sources of reasonable quality all through, until upgrading DAC to top level recently. (Of course, with streaming the cost of a very respectable source is now relatively cheap, making it easier than ever today to have a very good source without having to skimp on other components.)

In part answer to the standing question, when I upgraded my DAC to Dave (from Hugo), listening  through Bryston amp and PMC EB1i speakers, I did find it to be more revealing, and with bad recordings my first impression was that they sounded worse than before - however I am not convinced they actually do sound worse, rather just that as other things sound better the difference between the poor ones and good ones is more evident, so they sound worse by comparison. 

steve95775 posted:

 

If I'm honest, I do have a bias towards better sounding recordings., even though I have many old recordings. If I look at say jazz/blues/torch singers there is Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and numerous blues singers from the 1930's onward in my collection. Sure it's great to listen, sure you appreciate the voice, but....  It's obvious to me that the Carol Kidd, Diana Krall or whatever will get more of an outing if I'm in the mood for female Jazz vocalists. I'm not arguing that any artist is better/worse, it's just that when I'm scrolling through the options on my I-pad or flicking through the cd's I will, (subconsciously or not), tend to pick the better, more modern recordings.

I've just discovered Katie Melua and Nils Lofgren. Music I wasn't listening before, but sounds fantastic now. Like someone singing straight in my ear. Guitar attack is brilliant.

I have not tried my modest collection of the jazz singers from the 30's yet but previously I was listening quite frequently to the soundtrack of the movie 'Midnight in Paris' which is mostly jazz and blues from the 20's and 30's. I'm afraid this will be a deception but who knows ...

"I've just discovered Katie Meula".  Me too, some great tracks. And an ever so pure and controlled voice. Her cover of Leonard Cohen's "My Secret Life" is sublime. 

steve95775 posted:

"I've just discovered Katie Meula".  Me too, some great tracks. And an ever so pure and controlled voice. 

100%      Mrs Mike was the original fan & I have grown into her,  hastened on by a live concert that uncovers her talents even more so.  Since she's parted company with Mike Batt & has become her own musical director/producer the real artist is shining through.  'In Winter' is an absolute joy, worth every penny not least for the  Gori Women’s Choir.

Mike-B posted:

steve95775 posted:

"I've just discovered Katie Meula".  Me too, some great tracks. And an ever so pure and controlled voice. 

100%      Mrs Mike was the original fan & I have grown into her,  hastened on by a live concert that uncovers her talents even more so.  Since she's parted company with Mike Batt & has become her own musical director/producer the real artist is shining through.  'In Winter' is an absolute joy, worth every penny not least for the  Gori Women’s Choir.

I didn't know she was a Mike Batt protégée. Talking of Mike Batt I must track down a copy of his 80's (?) album "Tarot Suite". Was on high rotation back when. Will also search out your suggestion. Thanks!