Should sound quality determine reviews?

BaldJean wrote: I already made a remark about this topic in another thread. sound quality is in my opinion a typical male issue; I have yet to meet a woman who cares about it. this does not mean that all men care about it, but if somebody cares about it it is a safe bet the person in question is a man. I am actually of the opinion that sound quality can be too good. this makes the music appear sterile. ...

Edited by BaldJean - March 06 2020 at 08:35

Guldbamsen wrote: I don’t think we can make any sort of meaningfull rule or guideline with regards to fidelity. In the end it has to do with the individual and their sonic journey. If you most of your life have been listening to music over bright speakers/headphones it is quite understandable that you shy away from less than stellar recordings. Why? Because once you tune a speaker brightly you also get all the production mistakes hurdled into your ears compared to a more linear tuning. I know a lot of folks who swear by AKGs like the K701, K702 and Q701 - also some that favour the HD800 from Sennheiser...and while these headphones sound downright brilliant with great productions, they also make most others sound terrible. I think a lot of the folks out there that trash on certain albums’ production do so because they own bright gear. Sort of like watching television and then turning the definition waaay up...which doesn’t exactly give you more detail..but to the untrained eye does seem like it does. The same thing goes for speakers/headphones. So yeah my advice to those that far too often run into less than stellar productions is to consider a pair of new sound purveyors instead of missing out on potentially wonderful music

I don’t think we can make any sort of meaningfull rule or guideline with regards to fidelity. In the end it has to do with the individual and their sonic journey. If you most of your life have been listening to music over bright speakers/headphones it is quite understandable that you shy away from less than stellar recordings. Why? Because once you tune a speaker brightly you also get all the production mistakes hurdled into your ears compared to a more linear tuning.
I know a lot of folks who swear by AKGs like the K701, K702 and Q701 - also some that favour the HD800 from Sennheiser...and while these headphones sound downright brilliant with great productions, they also make most others sound terrible.
I think a lot of the folks out there that trash on certain albums’ production do so because they own bright gear. Sort of like watching television and then turning the definition waaay up...which doesn’t exactly give you more detail..but to the untrained eye does seem like it does. The same thing goes for speakers/headphones.

So yeah my advice to those that far too often run into less than stellar productions is to consider a pair of new sound purveyors instead of missing out on potentially wonderful music

Edith: then again no amount of ‘warmth’ will ever rescue an album like Earthbound from it’s production
There are albums out there which are almost impossible to listen to. Stuff that sounds like it was recorded inside a big plastic bucket or a skip of styrofoam. Nothing that can be done about that I’m afraid..and yes I think it is perfectly alright to downscore such an effort if it hinders one’s appreciation of the actual music...but again that is very much dependant on the individual.

Edited by Guldbamsen - March 06 2020 at 07:36

Edited by ExittheLemming - March 06 2020 at 06:59

No.

Unless it is so bad that it makes it truly physically impossible to hear the music.

Otherwise no.

Production quality is huge, but I only think it really matters if it actually impacts the music recorded. Is the mix too muddy to hear everything? That can impact a song IMHO. One of my biggest gripes about some of the earlier KC stuff is that it's too damn quiet. Easy Money vocal tracks sound like they were recorded through drywall at half volume. That type of stuff ruins it for me, lol.