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Slight Hardness on LP's

Hello FriendsI'm very happy with my set up, but on some LP's, and maybe overall, I found the sound, a bit harsh, e.g one some live records, the clapping, of the audience, is not natural!!, but at the same time the Bass, is great!!, my phono stage, and preamp, and monoblocks are all solid stage!!, do you think, maybe to go with a "tube preamp", might solve this!!, or will it spoil the great bass!!, Friends I live down on the far south coast of Australia, my closest Hi-Fi shop is 3 hours drive, from me!!, Is there a tone control, unit out there, or will this, smudge the nice cymbals??Hoping someone out there, can help??, My System is bellow, thanks in advance!!Source: "Once Analog" TT, "Aust" made, mated with the "Wand Tonearm" New Zealand, made, with a Dynavector DV-20X2L low output cartridgePhono Stage: Vacume tube logic made in Switzerland (solid statePre Amp: P.S Audio, and Dac, in one unit!!Mono Blocks: "Channel Islands", which I love!!, they are rated approx 170 WPC per channel, maybe this might be the problem, as the speakers are rated at I think 98 ohms, too much power??, I think they were designed, for fewer watts??I don't know!!, someone told me you can never have too much power, regardless!!Speakers: Zu Soul's MK 2Cables: Telos speaker cables, PAD and Harmonic Tech interconnects, RCA's, from TT, to Phono Stage, RCA's from phono Stage, to Pre Amp, Balanced from pre to "Mono Blocks"Friends, I know, this a long question, but want to get everything right, as we all "Enjoy the Music" !!ManyThanksDavid SpryAustralia



128x128daveyonthecoast
erik_squires
16,118 posts
 
Room acoustics.

As a cheap experiment, get some blankets and pillows and try between the speakers and behind the speakers on the floor.  This is an often neglected area.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Living in a remote location where trying gear is expensive and time consuming the last thing you want to do is throw ideas on the wall to see what sticks. Which is all you can do here.

Only advice worth getting is do everything you can with what you have right now. First, to figure out what sounds like what. To narrow down as much as you can to the culprit. 

Try different speaker locations. Try different interconnects. Or if you don't have spares try moving around the ones you do have to see how they sound with different components. Try tweaking your turntable, cartridge, shelf, footers, etc, etc. Try listening to a lot of different recordings. They are not all the same you know, and you did say "some" LPs.

Then you might try a few things that are cheap and easy and known to work. A sand bed under the turntable, cost next to nothing to try. Piece of sorbothane or other squishy material under the turntable or other component. Not offered as solutions, just some stuff to get you going. The more of this you do, even if you don't solve your problem you definitely will learn a lot more about your system and what affects the sound and what does not. So at least then if you still want to change or upgrade something you won't be totally in the dark any more.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,227 posts
 
If the only thing you don't like about your system is that on some live recordings the audience clapping doesn't sound natural, then you have a great system and I would advise that you don't change a thing.

BTW, for many rock and pop albums the clapping is not taped at the recording venue.  It is added in the recording studio from sound effects tapes.
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,913 posts
 
Can you give as idea on what LP you find offensive during music ?
i would visit and smuggle in a phono preamp or three and some cartridge alignment tools but the new wall between Colorado and ???? Will prevent my immediate escape
dentdog's avatar
dentdog
498 posts
 
Call Mick at Supratek. Australian preamps or combo phono/preamps.  You might check his blog. Easy to find on the internet.
He makes 6SN7 preamps and 300B direct heated triode preamps as well. 
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