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ATTENTION SOUND ENGINEERS

Dear sound engineer,

As you certainly know, a recording that sounds BAD on a "high-end" or "audiophile" playback system may still sound GOOD or at least acceptable on a the average more modest mass-marked systems (such as one might buy at Circuit City).

However, a recording which sounds GOOD on a "high-end" audio playback system will also sound GOOD on a the average Circuit City system... In fact, (please pay attention here) a recording which sounds GOOD on a "high-end" system will sound THAT MUCH BETTER ON THE AVERAGE CIRCUIT CITY SYSTEM.

So WHY then do you the SOUND ENGINEERS so often record in a way that is listenable only via "Circuit City level systems"? I am not talking about subtleties here; what are you using to verify the results of your work?

Again, I could understand the situation if the relative few "audio psycho freak systems" required special recording techniques which would not sound good when played back via more modest systems, but this is not the case! Everybody would benefit from recordings which sound good on better systems! I have proven this to myself numerous times when listening to better recordings either in my office (a system which I bought from the French equivalent of Circuit City), in the car (the factory installed system... real junk), or in some cases, on the systems of non-audiophile friends. Yes, (are you still listening?) better recordings do also sound better on "normal systems".

The most obvious and offending characteristic is the tendency for levels that are too strong in the upper mid range, and higher frequencies (this is almost standard with Rock and Pop music).

It shouldn't cost anything to get this right.

Don't make me start my own record label!

Thanks for listening,

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