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What the *#$@ happened??

I'll keep this short, just hoping someone can let me know what's going on. I changed out the platform my TT was on to a much denser wood, and I'm not really happy with the results. The good, I can hear more detail in the music, subtle nuances are more prevalent, better instrument separation, especially in complex arrangements. The bad, the whole stage moved back and got flatter, it lost depth. And the 3 dimensional characteristics of the singers voice also lost luster, became flatter as it were. It almost seems like I'm listening to a stereo now instead of a live performance. I thought the heavier wood would improve the sound, not degrade it. 
Anyone know why this happened?
128x128shawnlh
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Technically the Symposium is not a vibration isolation device. Isolation devices are technically not vibration absorbers either.

Happy holidays 
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inna
7,150 posts
 
You could ask Clearaudio for the advice. As for tuning as opposed to just absorbing, I will be the first one to support this approach. After all I have Michael Green free resonance speakers. You can easily overwhelm them with very loud music, but within their operating range they sound very natural.
Still I am puzzled by the collapse of the soundstage depth that you experience.
Also, turntable is not a cd player, you cannot really extrapolate.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
"Technically Symposium is better than wood."

Technically it's better than peanut butter, too.  Or say a can of Spam.
redglobe
223 posts
 
Hi Shawn,  Are you judging based on aural experience or based on sound reproduction?  You stated that with the new plinth you "hear more detail in the music, subtle nuances are more prevalent, better instrument separation, especially in complex arrangements."  That does not happen by a miracle.

The stylus must track the record groove more precisely to retrieve this sound information.  The stylus cannot selectively track the more complex passages and fail at the simpler undulations.

I suspect that you are listening to studio recordings rather than live recordings of acoustic instruments and voices.  Studio music sounds flat when heard as originally recorded.  Conversely, acoustic instruments have timber and when recorded in a hall (like classical music), they have an ambient sound.  Nothing is added artificially, like reverberation in studio-recorded music.

Before your new plinth, you believed your listening experience was like hearing a "live" performance.  But what you really were hearing is echo of the energy from the stylus tracing the groove and the energy resonating back into the stylus rather than being absorbed in the massive plinth.  Thus, it gave it a fuller sound, yet with less sonic detail, as you stated.

I suggest you listen to your new plinth for a while and experience what you have been missing.
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