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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
gosta's avatar
gosta
839 posts
 
+1 onhwy61 

Good advice not to tune your system after bad recordings. Bad is bad.
 
Ben Webster - Live at the Renaissance
for reference acoustic live recording including applauses.

LOKI is a nice simple inexpensive tool for adjusting the sound when you want to listen to the bad. 
audiorusty
270 posts
 
I also agree with @onhwy61.

I suspect your source material. The stage microphones are designed to reject sound that doesn't originate directly in front of the mic and especially that which originates from the rear of the mic such as applause. Also proximity to the mic makes a big difference. The farther away you are from the mic the less sensitive it becomes and the less realistic the sounds that they pick up become. I am also pretty sure that separate mics are used to record the audience and have their own dedicated channels on the mixing console and even though these mics are aimed at the audience they will still be along distance from them and will still suffer from the proximity affect. Thirdly with with most of the applause being on dedicated channels on the recording I highly doubt that either the recoding engineer, the mixing engineer or the mastering engineer are spending much if any time making sure that these tracks sound realistic

Lastly the frequency range of hands clapping is going to be in the same range of the upper harmonics of a vocalists, your melody instruments and the fundamental and harmonic range of the cymbals especially the hi-hat, so any adjustment you make that affects the tone of the applause will also affect the tone of everything else in that frequency range.

gosta's avatar
gosta
839 posts
 
audiorusty - interesting knowledge.

Sometimes they get it right.
Emmylou Harris - Cowgirl´s Prayer track "Thanks to You" has fine handclaps. Her voice unfortunately a little edgy in my opinion. As often with Emmylou. Seems hard to record well.
daveyonthecoast's avatar
daveyonthecoast OP
40 posts
 
Thanks, everyone, I have done all of the, above, except, the wood!!My main question is, should I go with my solid-state phono stage??, that has given me a deep bass!!, but a bit bright, overall, not all LP's, Shall I save my phono stage, which I like, and go for a Tube Pre Amp, will I lose bass slam?? coming from the phono stage??Friends
can you help??Many ThanksDavid
michaellent's avatar
michaellent
193 posts
 
You do not need to buy anything.  drrsutliff is correct. The  vertical tracking angle on your arm is not set correctly. Go to soundSmith.com they describe exactly what you're referring to and how to solve it-that is by changing the VTA. 
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