Something I noticed whilst improving my setup over the years is the following; some music just doesn’t sound good anymore. I could still enjoy it in the car for instance, but not on my main system. Now it could just be my system that doesn’t favour certain types of music, but I think it’s more that you get to a point where you hear that the recording is just bad or very compressed?
One example would be any Muse album, which I do enjoy, but on my system really isn’t enjoyable. Rock in general and a lot of electronic music can be quite bad, although there are good examples. Is it me, my system or do others have the same experience going up in quality of their system having to say goodbye to certain recordings?
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Yup, I have certainly experienced that.
In my opinion, The loudness war has a lot to do with it…
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This is very familiar to me. The main reason is that as we age the music that we feel a relationship with also alters. In my case I now cannot bear to listen to rock music although when I was 20 or so years younger it was my favoured genre.
Another realisation from a lifetime of this hobby is that very good sounding equipment does not automatically result in great music. I hate to think of all of the systems I have heard ( and owned 
) that sound great from an audiophile’s viewpoint yet are sterile and uninvolving.
So maybe its you, maybe its your system, maybe it’s both.
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I know exactly what you mean. Which is why I had to have a Tube element in my system chain to “fix” this (in my case a Hybrid OTL Amp; Tube input stage and solid-state output drive stage).
Ditto . I use an E.A.R Yoshino pre amp with NOS tubes.
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I haven’t yet tried a tube element in my system.
Out of interest, which hybrid OTL amp do you have?
I have the Tenor 175S HP (20th Anniversary Edition)
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Wow! That’s a seriously impressive bit of kit!
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I have yet to hear Varèse in a system with a tube in the signal path (or a horn-based system for that matter). Very much looking forward to it!
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You know where I am so just pop round with Varese 
.
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I’m not sure the type of music is the determining factor. For instance, I’ve been revisiting my 80s library, and have found early Tom Petty or Joe Jackson to be so bright as to be unlistenable. On the other hand, Sade and Bryan Ferry still sound amazing. It all goes back to the engineer and the artists vision, as well as the “target system” that the recording was mixed for. I’ve had good success using Acourate to build DSP filters which I apply in Roon. I’ve developed a number of curves to correct different flaws.
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Agreed. One has just popped up on Audiogon, which is rare:
https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisb4ag0-tenor-audio-175s-tube
My observation is the same only for different reasons i think. One of my favority blues rock album classics is smokin by humble pie. Even the vinyl just sounds thin which i didnt notice 20 or more years ago. I attribute it to more compression at the time which my systems didnt reveal
If an entire genre rather than the odd individual record sounds bad then you have made a poor equipment choice somewhere. As I have already said, good sound does not automatically bring good music. The latter should be the objective.
Concentration on audiophile touchstones can lead down the wrong path. The worst I can recall was a guy writing to HFN back in the pre-digital days " My record player is so good I can now only play Japanese pressings".
A great audio system should increase the number of records you like, not decrease them. However, yes, some individual records can be a disappointment.
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Well, some genres of music are more affected than others and maybe some eras of recording are also more prone to sound worse. Sure it has to do with the engineer and what choices they made to make it sound the way it did. But still some genres and eras are more affected than others.
I enjoy very many albums and also new music I hear about here on the forum or on Qobuz all the time. Nothing wrong with the enjoyment I get out of my system, but some favorites of yore are just not listenable anymore.
I notice the sound difference as well. I have 2 systems and the lesser system sounds better with most 60s, 70s, 80s pop music. My theory is the albums are mastered for playback on their intended audience’s typical playback system. In the 70s a typical system was cheap and had a lot of distortion. Distortion manifests itself in the highs. To compensate for this distortion they mastered the album with rolled off highs which sounds dry, lifeless and flat on a modern high end system. Bob Seger is a good example. His ballads sound great on lesser systems, but sound dry on distortion free high end systems. Today’s pop music is mastered for ear buds, which is why it sounds so bad played on good equipment. This is why I think so many of us hi fi nerds listen to jazz and classical as it is recorded to be played on good equipment. But, this is just my theory.
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I have never understood why someone would listen to any genre of music or a specific recording just because it was recorded well. I listen to music where the performance interests or moves me. That is why I avoid hip/hop, jazz and most classical.
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I do as well, but I now listen to music on the system where it sounds best. Pop and rock in my car. Jazz on my high end system.
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I see it slightly differently and maybe can clarify. My parents listened to big band on the radio and the local radio played mostly top 40 but all mixed from roger miller to glen miller and bobby vinton. My older sister discovered underground radio and it started my quest on blues and blues influenced rock in my teens. My wife was raised on classical and opera and possibly folk like pete seeger and josh white. Years of listening to classical in a car on road trips ( we each got our turn) gave me familiarity to classical but not inspired. Heres my explanation. From my experience aside from say pink floyd, king crimson and the pixies, rock music is all uniform volume so listening in a car where the noise floor is say 70db (and hopefull doesnt exceed 100db) gives you most of the information you get on any stereo sans imaging. 30 db of dynamic range but for all intents and purposes 80db constant. Classical on the other hand is not flat with but has soft passages and loud passages giving it a totally additional dimension. I listen to mostly hard bop jazz or ecm type music but get a healthy dose of classical on my own now. The dimensionality of classical music on a good stereo where the sound floor is say 20 db and the peaks are say 90db adds quite a bit more info and thus substantially creates more interest. For a long time classical listener one can mentally insert the missing information having heard it many times in person where in a symphony hall where the noise floor may be in the lower 50db range. A rock listener has only heard a wall of sound with little dynamic range but excitement created by raw feel. It may not explain everyones experience but it does mine. In summary, i dont listen to music for the recognizable melody but for the individual performance and how their expression of emotion is conveyed. The missing dynamic range dimension is essential for my enjoyment of classical music which i now experience in my listening area and kind of now understand in my wifes car.
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I have no issue with the points you make while clarifying your initial post. There is a great deal of dynamic compression in today’s music. I also agree that classical and Jazz sound better when played on good equipment. My point is that everything is going to sound better when played on good (i.e. audiophile) equipment. So why would I seek out music in genres that do not peak my interest.
I can use your Bob Seger comment to help explain my position. Seger is one of my favorite artists. I swear his music will be the epitaph of my life. (Night Moves, Like a Rock, Fire Inside, Main Street, You’ll Accompany Me). Even though most releases are not well recorded they still sound better on my main system than on my whole home set-up or in a car. His music and lyrics grab me whereas I cannot even finish the best recording of Kind of Blue.
I am not trying to change anyones mind about what they should enjoy or listen to. Bottom line, DSD 256 will not be a priority for me until mainstream artists release music in that format. I have said this before, when the time comes when I stop finding new artists and music, no matter the quality of the recording, I will give up this hobby.
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