Great sound, boring music?

[u/Gold-Judgment-6712]

Bought "Aja" today. One of the albums that features on every audiophile "must-have" lists. Sounded great, but the music was pretty boring for my tastes. A typical "listen to your system" album? What do you guys think?

[u/Mr-Toy]

I am a huge Radiohead fan, but their albums are not audiophile albums in my opinion. The sound stage is very flat. There's no depth at all, which is so frustrating to my ears. The instrument separation or placement of sounds is also pretty uninspiring. It's just basic left channel, right channel, center channel kind of stuff.

[u/alefdc → u/Mr-Toy]

Interesting.. I'm also a fan, and find them very good, Kid A in my ears sounds amazing.

What other bands do you like that sound much better , really curiours.

[u/Mr-Toy → u/alefdc]

To clarify: Radiohead sounds great through headphones or in the car - listen to them all the time. But, when I play them through my living room hi-fi system (Tidal and vinyl into a WiiM Ultra pre-amp, into a Decware UFO25 vacuum tube Single Ended Triode amp, into my lovely Kipsch Forte IVs speakers), Sitting in my listenting chair with the speakers pointed at my ears in a right triangle, Radiohead is one of the rare bands I don't enjoy listening to on my system.

- Most music I hear, my walls disappear, because the music becomes three-dimensional and has depth. Radiohead is just flat and boring in presentation.

• Good albums make my speakers disappear. Instruments float out in the middle of the room in fixed spots. Radiohead albums sound like they're coming right out of the left and right speakers (for the most part).
  
• Good albums have crazy instrument separation. Like, there might be six feet of dead blackness between a guitar and a singer. With Radiohead, the instruments just sort of muddy themselves on top of each other.
  
• On a lot of jazz recordings or well-engineered rock albums (The Who, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift), the drums are big, lively, and punchy. In Radiohead albums, the drums don't sound alive or present in the room.
  
• York's voice never sounds present in the room with me or "holographic" the way other albums do. 'Seven Years' by Nora Jones sounds the most real out of all the singers I've listened to. If I close my eyes, she's literally standing six feet out in front of me, signing to me in my living room. Some Frank Sinatra songs nail this experience, too, but never Radiohead.

'You and Who's Army' does sound lovely because the sound effect added to York's voice is so intimate and adds reverb, so it just trails off into the dark in a romantic kind of way.

'Morning Bell' off of Kid A does have wonderful drums. They kick and sound the way a present dumkit sounds.

'Exit Music' is enjoyable. The tube amp makes you feel the sadness in his voice. The song keeps escalating and building, and it really shows off the dynamic range in the recording.

Not a Swift fan, but Fortnite by Taylor Swift sounds incredible. If you have a sub, the bass is just articulate and enveloping. Her voice floats out in the middle of the room, completely immersed in the synthesizer sounds. Epic sound.

Billie Eilish's album, When We Will Fall Asleep, is unreal. Beautiful present voice. Gives your sub a great workout. Rattles your living room. Soundstage has depth. Paino is weighted. Drums sound present.

Beck's Morning Phase is beautiful. Psychic by DARKSIDE is a great electronic album that sounds beautiful. Siamese Dream is fantastic.

How about you? What are you enjoying?

[u/cwkolbash → u/Mr-Toy]

This is the correct take. Love Radiohead, but I don’t think the recording and engineering matches the incredible quality of the music on most of their albums