Words best not said

We appear to be going through a period at one site where people seem to be more interested in pursuing agendas  than just saying what there own experiences are.

I've seen this at a particular music based site before where certain members who see themselves as followers of its owner talking in a ultra uber "Our Host said" way as if they were some music engineering diety, whose approach cannot be questioned.

One has a personal site devoted to this individual with lots of photos of them and in over 15 years I have seen him always without exception pile on any other audio mastering engineers work and labels they work for as if no one ever could do a good job and this other person never made a mistake at all.

Personally I'm not into Cults of Personality having bought a good number of records and cds over the years including those issues targeted at people with hifi system looking for the best available copy of an album.

Good people can and do make mistakes and even if they don't another person may of improved upon previous attempts so the most sensible approach is to just listen to them and set out why you favour one rather than the other.

Others promote very old copies of cds that just do not play well with modern cd players as they lack the ability to reliably tell if some older discs where the high notes were boosted and a signal to switch a circuit in the play to correct it that helped some very early players.

If they get that wrong they sound "tinny" and you can't manually switch it over so a really good modern copy without that makes sense for people in that situation.

Similar some older records were made to louder because some like a more "in your face" presentation where the actual recording may have a more subtle dynamic sound and that is what a new copy is trying to give people.

That can when matched with improved detail make for a much more enjoyable copy to sit and listen to rather than perhaps bopping along on the dance floor.

Ultimately it's really about what you feel makes for a great listening session with your favourite recordings and why these other people and labels have given you a new version.

Sometimes a new "flavour" of an old favourite really does it for you.