A parametric equalizer would either help you to analyze your "problem", or solve it. It ain't that complicated, unless you really want it to be that way.
Lack in harmonic richness
I experience a lack in harmonic richness when listening to my system. Both the midrange and treble sound thin and threadbare. I think the amount of midrange of treble is ok, but there is no "body", no rich overtones and bloom. What is the best recommendation for this problem: Change speaker position? Change room acoustics? Change front end and/or amplifier? Change speakers? As far as I can recall I had this problem also with the previous speakers (Dunlavy SC V's) but with the Soundlabs it is aggravated.
System: MBL 1621 transport/Accustic Arts Tube DAC/Accuphase C-290V preamplifier/JMF power amplifiers/Soundlab A-1's.
Chris
System: MBL 1621 transport/Accustic Arts Tube DAC/Accuphase C-290V preamplifier/JMF power amplifiers/Soundlab A-1's.
Chris
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- 30 posts total
You have among the best front end source in the world, don't even think of stepping down to the Ipod/Itransport as mention in your other thread. The other equipment you mention seems OK too. Try this.... many have done in the Far East where I come from. ;-) How to revive a system... Another recent discoverer... Don't just waste your money switching equipment every few months without even maximizing the potential of the system... |
Thanks for all your responses. They are very insightful. What I exactly mean is that in comparison with the lower midrange/upper bass the midrange and upper midrange/treble are deprived from a certain richness in sound (= bloom). I hear enough bass and mid bass, it's even too much some times. But upper midrange and treble should sound rich and with plenty of "air". I'll experiment with different speaker positions first. Chris |
Dazzdax - Here's a suggestion related to the Parametric EQ. My experience suggests that the problem is not your equipment - It's very likely your room. The fact that changing equipment doesn't change the outcome seems to support that. And my recent experience with Audissey MultiEQ has me rethinking a lot of what I thought I knew. I have yet to hear anything through my system that doesn't sound richer, fuller, more real and with better more stable imaging when put through the Audissey. Try out some room correction. You may be surprised... T |
The room/speaker interface is a cause of much audiophile dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, it isn't easy to cure the problem, as there are only so many things most of us can do or are prepared to do. I solved this exact dissatisfaction purely by accident. Some ten years ago, a classified ad appeared in my local newspaper for a pair of Infinity IRS Gammas at a ridiculously appealing price. I bought them because my then-current speakers irritated and fatigued me, and no amount of monkeying with positioning and electronics achieved much improvement. When I intially set up the Gammas, they were no better. But the Gammas have a user interface absent on almost all other speakers: Each of the five drivers has a level adjustment. After several hours of experimentation, I found what for me were the ideal settings for each driver's level (left and right speakers aren't identically set, by the way) and made diagrams to commemorate my preferred settings in case somebody played with them. The result for me was audio nirvana. Much of the source material I couldn't previously abide sounds compelling. The best material moves me to tears. Interestingly, I've since had the system checked with a spectrum analyzer, and the frequency response is close to flat. In fact, I was unable to adjust the driver level settings to get a flatter response, only to shift the frequencies where the small deviations occur, with less-pleasing (to my ear) sonic results. The settings I prefer are far from the centerline for most of the drivers, some well to the negative side and some well to the positive, others just off center. Small changes produce big (usually unpleasant) results. Assuming that the centerline represents flat output in an anechoic chamber as measured by Infinity for manufacturing purposes, the adjustments I've made compensate for the impact of my room and its furnishings on the speakers' frequency response. My experience suggests that the room in which accurate speakers are placed can at best be neutral but more likely denegrate performance. Infinity's solution was to create an intuitive way of letting the listener compensate. If drivers cannot be adjusted, as is most commonly the case for most speakers, then the room has to be modified, a far more complicated procedure, or equalization needs to be applied, a procedure that has its own weaknesses from my experience, in that a noticeable veiling of detail results. |
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