What causes that anoying Hiss? audio related

[Alchemist99]

Why is that some recordings seem to have a background of white noise? bah I feel i have a pretty decent sound system and then i get these recordings that sound like crap not all but some. I dont think its my system but I'm no audiofile. Now these recordings are high qaulity new cd's or maybe off of I tunes, Is there a way to reduce this background noise. Some music sounds perfect while others sound like crap, I listen to a wide range of styles from classical to hardrock this seems to happen more on older recordings. Heeelp please!

Specs Yamaha htr5460 using optical input
Sc Hercules Digifire 7.1
Monster cabling
Klh 10 sub
2Kenwood Jl-860 (old School) 15" subs
Polk audio monitor series 2

 

[squirrel dog]

If you will lower the treble and the bass the back ground noise will lower in Volume.I know that isnt the response you want,there may be a filter you could buy/place that would work on all selections.

 

[Chaotic42]

I'd say that it's just that they're crappy recordings. We have some audio like that at work, with slight hissing, though we can usually take it out with audio software. If I remember, I'll ask one of our DJs on Monday. He knows a lot more about audio than I do.