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Seeking advice on high kHz annoyance in my system

Some of my go to recordings for testing my system have always been classical piano. I listen for mid-range clarity, the audibility of the “action” of the piano, e.g. hammer and pedal sounds coming through, as well as clarity in upper register.

After recently making substantial changes to my system (see below), I hear (or continue to hear) an artificial or secondary ringing/buzzing (sorry, not a good description in the upper register of piano recordings.

Trying to isolate the issue, I hear this across a wide selection of recordings of the same Mozart piano sonata to varying degrees (all 44.1kHz/16 bit) regardless the pianist and recording. Although relatively newer recordings appear to have this artifact more than older ones.

Before I continue with my Quixotic search for the “final 10%”, I’d like to identify the cause and tame this high frequency annoyance.

My thoughts:

(1) My once golden, now 63-year-old ears? Unfortunately, I have no intention of visiting an audiologist during COVID.

(2) This was present in my previous system as well and I'd hoped to eliminate it through recent upgrades. It may or may not have been helped. Can't recall.  It’s been so long since I’ve been to alive recital or concert, I don’t recall if the same annoyance happens live. 

(3) My 21”x16”x14” room is untreated other than for rugs, book-shelving on a side wall and ordinary furnishings, paintings, etc.

(4) More noticeable at higher (but not excessive) volumes.

(5) Occurs through speakers and headphones (HD800s and Campfire Ara iem using Dave or Mojo)

(6) XLR and speaker cables are older Synergistic Research (Element and Tungsten). Using silver tuning bullets (no snark, please), and have not tried gray or black, which are said to darken the sound (roll-off?) slightly. Have experimented in the past and found slight differences in sound character. Will try this next.

Recently moved from BHK 300s and pre with Modwright-modded Oppo Sonica DAC and Fidelizer Nimitra Signature server as Roon core to my current system:

Roon Nucleus Plus w/ Teddy Pardo LPS

D’Agostino Progressive Integrated

Chord M Scaler w/ Teddy Pardo LPS

Chord Dave DAC

Focal Kanta 3’s

Cables: Synergistic Research, Wireworld, Wywires. Stock Chord BNCs between M Scaler and Dave

Grateful for any thoughts as to cause/solution?

 

 

 


128x128cantorgale
cantorgale's avatar
cantorgale OP
149 posts
 
@cm6td5. Great post, thanks.  Trying to think (way) back to my conservatory days sitting on practice room floors listening to some of my amazing pianist friends.  I do seem to recall that the sound was overpowering at times.  
cm6td
14 posts
 
By the way, the same thing happens with other stringed instruments. If you’re right next to a violin you’ll hear ringing noises that don’t sound very musical, especially when a note is dying away. You aren’t normally aware of those sounds because usually you’re pretty far away, and violins are designed to sound good at a distance. But microphones aren’t usually placed out in the audience where your ears would normally be, because that results in an unsatisfying recorded sound. Microphones can’t do the auditory processing that your brain does, so if the microphones are far away the direct sound of the instrument tends to be overwhelmed by hall reverberation. To make up for that they place the microphones very close to the instruments, but that means the recording captures sounds you don’t normally hear when you’re in the audience. I think that’s part of the reason people frequently complain about how violins sound in recordings.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
According to the OP: 
1. This was present in my previous system as well and I'd hoped to eliminate it   
2. More noticeable at higher (but not excessive) volumes.   
3. Occurs through speakers and headphones 

This rules out everything, leaving only the ears. Like I said, its tinnitus. 

If there was just one wish the Genie could grant me it would be to stop people from posting absolute blather as if they knew anything about it. Tinnitus is most definitely NOT always worse with no sound. Tinnitus can manifest in a whole lot of different ways. Unlike the blatherer I know what I'm talking about having actually lived through it! 

There's so many different forms of tinnitus this is total coincidence but what I had was exactly what the OP described. No ringing or funny noises at all, except with certain notes or sounds. I even had the problem first start to show up after making some changes, causing me to waste a lot of time and money trying to track down in my system what was actually in my ears. 

When I noticed the exact same "noise" listening to iPod and ear phones I knew for sure it wasn't the system. So for sure that is what you have. Really sorry to say.  

Tinnitus can have many causes. In my case it was long term use of pain killers for chronic back pain. Got the pain down, got off the meds, and it took a while but the ringing pretty much went away. Your case may well be different but its worth taking a look.   

Like a lot of things its easier to handle once you know what it is. Even if it won't go away (which it probably won't) at least you know what it is now and can disregard it and stop chasing down phantoms in your system.

cantorgale's avatar
cantorgale OP
149 posts
 
@millercarbon Thank you for the clarification. I will most certainly look into it. 
dweller's avatar
dweller
3,781 posts
 
@cantorgale - If you can specify which recordings give you the most grief, others can give-a-listen and feedback their results. The distortion may be "baked in" to the recording (in which case it aint never going to be good). Please specify. Thanks
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