The Best is the "Worst" ...

[fas42]

Overall I've found recordings that sound atrocious on many systems to be the best indicators, markers of progress. I have a selection on hand, ready to bring me to earth fast if I haven't been fussy enough:

Status Quo has been a standby for many, many years: in the early years I used a greatest hits collection as a regular to humiliate other gear . The ability to go loud and resolve the tonality of the cymbals is a quick and easy test ...

A collection of early 30's big band, swing orchestra hits. Big brass crescendos very easily turn nasty if all not well.

A very poor Oscar Petersen mastering. Something was not right in the studio when doing the job, and the piano tone is right on the edge of being unacceptable ...

Foo Fighters, probably any album: the production style gives this music a tremendously aggressive tone; making it sound like music is not easy.

Led Zeppelin I, original mastering: massive sound stage, tremendously overwhelming impact. Most systems make a complete mess of this ....

Adele 21: this is hard work, absolutely peak replay capability is required. Otherwise, sound becomes like a battering ram.

Just a few off the top of my head ... 

Frank

[PeterSt]

For a large part it is a matter of attitude;

I live by making "CD's" which don't sound at all, listenable up to just good.

When I started with CDs, okay, say two years after that, I owned a 1000 albums, 5 of them sounding good to me. A small 10 years later, never buying new amps or CD players etc., BUT tweaking the hell out of my existing system, I was left with 5 sounding NOT good.

So instead of playing the "inherently" good ones only, I play the bad ones and try to make them better.
That tweaking of my system totally stopped and has changed into making the software better.

blahblah

Peter


PS: "Whatever you want - wherever you go ..."
Recognize it Frank ? Maybe not; I'm doing it by heart.

[BertD]

That tweaking of my system totally stopped and has changed into making the software better...

Perhaps it is time the update the system once more (big leap) and from there continue with less fatiguing work to improve the software even further? 

I have gathered several ideas during the time you've stopped updating... 

Bert

[PeterSt]

PS: "Whatever you want - wherever you go ..."

Frank, it took me two full albums with smashing cymbals minus one track ...

"Whatever you want - whatever you think ... ".

"Whatever you want" is the name of the track.

Not many people go for Status Quo. I recall from 20 years ago I had 43 albums of them ...
And ehm, saw them live 10 years back. No. I was disappointed. Too much of puppets on a string.
But sounded great tonight !

Regards,
Peter

[fas42]

Got it in the first post, Peter! "Caroline" is perhaps the optimum track to use because the cymbals are close enough to be being continuous throughout, and allows one to play with things while monitoring the tone. I was using a Perreaux 2150B at the time, nominally a beast of an amp, and there was a clear point where the power supply started to collapse, way below maximum volume - a lot of my efforts have been with amplifiers, these of course are a major weak link ...

I went and saw the band in their heyday, uuhh, 35 years ago  , they did well! Would you believe, here in Australia, they are a "mouthpiece" for one of the major supermarket brands, doing "Down, down, prices are down ... ", and a video to boot !! Issued a double CD with this version, new material, and live concert disk. They haven't changed a bit, well worth getting!

Yes, you've been on the "right" journey,  ... . With the tweaking, that is. Those 5 albums are vital tools in your kitbag ...

One thing that is clear to me is that there are numerous ways of achieving this critical quality level, call it 100, which allows the ear/brain to bypass remaining weaknesses. Your current focus is minimising the electrical interference generated by the source reading process, mine over the last couple of years has been to tame interference entering via power supply weaknesses; both can do the job if the rest of the system is up to it. So, there is no "magic" way, but plenty of smart ways of getting there ...

Frank