Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Can you help a friend of mine?

Here is some email exchanges a friend sent me. Can anybody provide some input. I told him it may be a poorly recorded cd's, but he claims they don't sound bad in the car...

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Randy,

I own a 12 year old Technics component stereo system consisting of a receiver, dual cassette deck, 5 disk cd player and two speakers. The original sytem cost about $800 12 years ago.

Recently when playing new cd's I've noticed the sound is distorted. I recently purchased two new Paradigm speakers thinking the speakers were worn out. This did not help the problem. Older cd's typically jazz r & b sound just fine. But a new cd by Natalie Cole, "Leavin'" sounds terrible. Same thing for a new "Snow Patrol" cd.

I've taken the receiver to Audio Labs and they say it's fine. I've not replaced the speaker wires. But the folks at audio labs didn't think that's would be the problem.

Any idea on what may be wrong? I'm stumped! Thanks in advance.

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Randy,

Thanks for the phone call! I typically listen to jazz (ella fitzgerald, billie holiday, diana krall, natalie cole, etc.) and r & b. The old stuff I've got sounds great. Some of the newer cds' I've purchased sounds terrible. Perhaps it is just poor recording quality? But I can put those cd's in my car (2006 Honda Accord) and they sound better! My Paradigm speakers were only $250 for the pair and are bookcase size. Perhaps that's part of my problem? However I also wonder if a 12 year old Technics receiver might be part of the problem? I hate to pour much money into this old system. Nor am I satisisfied with the sound quality. Would I be better off to start over?

My townhouse main level is only about 550 sq ft. I don't need a lot of sound to fill it up. When a $150 Sony bookshelf sounds great by comparison…I know something is wrong!

Thanks for any advice in advance. I really enjoy listening to music and want it to sound good!

Well as cd players go 12 years is fairly old although he did say his old cds sound ok. Maybe a loose connection somewhere or speaker connections out of phase.

maybe a better description other than "distorted" or"sounds terrible" would help diagnosis. CD player not spinning consistently might cause his issues. Have him run out and buy one of those ultra cheap DVD players($20-30) from Wal Mart and such and see if it helps.

I suppose it could be the older cd player, it is strange that some of his older cd's are fine, just these newer titles.

Have there been any changes in newer cd burning styles that possibly would be not compatible with his older cd technology?

Sure sounds like hot cd disease to me. The car system is probably making the hot cd's listenable, as that kind of equipment is what they record for these days.The bastards.

One difference I see in some CDs is thickness. Especially from the 12-for-a-penny CD clubs. I have a few that are markedly (like 70% of the thickness of a regular CD) thinner... my H/K carousel doesn't like to play those.

Other issues may be if they new CDs aren't Redbook-compliant compact discs.

Bren R.

I think it's factual. I've read other things that suggest this is the case. I've also read that over-compression also creates a harsher sounding CD.

When will people learn that QUALITY never goes out of style? Sizzle-boom sound may grab your attention quickly, but long term listening requires quality. There's plenty of music in my collection that I really like, but just can't listen to it at length due to poor recording quality. I tend to listen to the better quality recordings, even if it isn't from my favorite artist.

Once again, the promise of sound technology is hampered by the recording industry, which continues to think it knows what the consumer wants.

Here's the problem:

on average, the consumer doesn't give a rat's ass. If only there were more audiophiles...