But I would like to hear some good hard rock recorded direct to disc and pressed to vinyl. Vocals would be a challenge, but I would like them to set the levels of guitars and bass to match the drums, and figure the vocals, and let 'er rip.

The sorry fact of it all is that sound quality rarely predicts music quality and vice versa. I have some great albums that sound like crap, and I have some pristine one I could take or leave.

I think the industry will go full circle. There will always be those who want the highest level of sound repros, and those who have no idea what they are doing in the studio, mastering, copies and playback. Good news is it's not really all that bad if someone takes the time to explore both how far a playback system will go and how to pick a good recording.

If your system has it's act together and is flexible enough to tune in the recordings, even a bad engineering job doesn't sound as terrible as many say. If someone is throwing their playback system in the room without tuning it chances are your system will reject a lot of music.

A few members here have named CD's that were horrible and I went and played them to find they were just fine. Conclusion is pretty simple at that point. If listeners get a little more involved in making their system more flexible they are going to find far more enjoyment.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune