So Much "Harshness"

In my opinion, in the majority of cases these days, the cause of harshness is the loudspeaker drivers and crossovers. Especially, when used with tube amplifiers.

Drivers exhibit rising impedance as frequency increases as a function of the voice coil inductance. This impedance rise will obviously be at its maximum right below the frequency where a driver is crossed over. At any rate, tube (and, solid state, according to Ralph Karsten) amplifiers prefer higher impedances. What this means is that they put more power into those higher impedances, resulting in increased (and, out of balance with the rest of the musical spectrum) volumes in those regions.

Given that the preponderance of loudspeakers these days are using a crossover between the midwoofer/midrange driver and tweeter in the presence range (upper midrange/lower treble), usually falling somewhere between 1500 Hz and 3000 Hz, which is precisely where the lion's share of complaints of brightness and harshness are centered, it all seems pretty elementary to me.

The classic way around this is a Zobel (resitor - capacitor in parallel with the respective driver) network in the loudspeaker crossover, which flattens the impedance rise due to voice coil inductance. However, in my opinion, the Zobel causes at least as many problems than it solves ala robbing music of immediacy and drama, in addition to making the loudspeaker that much more difficult for the partnering tube amplifier to drive. At any rate, since most current loudspeakers do not implement the Zobel (or, at least, in this manner), here we are with this issue being exhibited in the majority of high-end audio systems of the current times.

I do think today's higher resolution equipment plays a large role in the epidemic of harshness. I don't recall hearing this kind of harshness in systems years ago. Higher resolution is quite often obtained by boosting upper mid and high frequencies, this acerbates harshness in recordings.

I've also found rather mundane parts quality in a lot of equipment. Upgrading capacitors and resistors can result in even higher resolution and much greater refinement.

I find too many recordings are excessively bright, again a problem with boosting upper mid and high frequencies.

All of this resolution does require careful system matching, getting the highest resolution and refinement is a delicate balancing act, easily the most difficult thing I've encountered in audio.

hi newbee:

you are dead wrong. from 1966 to 1973 i had an analog stereo system consisting of the following components:

sracked quad esls
quad 15 watt monos
mcintosh c22
thorens 124 t/t, ortofon arm and cartridge

i listened to plenty of music. you are presumptuous to tell me what i did during the 60's, 70's 80's. you have no clue.

the complaints of harshness are probably greater during the last 10 years than during the years, 1960's through the 1980's.

ignorance and poor choice of components is not the reason for complaints of harshness. people are more educated now than they were 30 years ago. the problem is the componets in production available today, compared to what was available during the 60's, and 70's.

i believe the 60's and 70's , with a preponderance of tube amps and preamps were characterized by wwhat would be considered subtraction in the treble and a bump in the bass--hardly a recipe for harshness. today, many components are peaky in the treble.

Mr T, Sorry, I should have used the word 'components', not 'music'. And you are right! I haven't the slightest clue what you were doing then, or now for that matter.

But, if you are relying on your personal components, as described, for support for your statement, consider that the introduction of SS components occurred over a decade before the introduction of digital components and pretty much dominated the market until tube components were 'resurected' by Bill Johnson. There was some serious dreck in those years. And there was no shortage of speakers being brought to the market to 'match'. I can still remember my abandoning my Altec 19's, my Rogers LS3/5a, etc for some of the phase correct, full range, flat FR 'audiophile' darlings. All before I got my first CDP, the acquisition of which only enhanced my growing disenchantment with 'Audio' further.

Today I think that the average audiophile on a budget CAN put together an excellent system which exceeds in most all aspects that was available or possible at anytime prior to the introduction of CDP's (1983 as I recall).

FWIW