In the several years that I've participated in these forums these are some of the most comprehensive and cogent responses that I've read. Even though some explanations are stretching my ability I greatly appreciate them and thank you for your willingness to share it.
The pink noise test revealed something that I otherwise may have continued to overlook as an important factor. I described the phenomenon of moving back from the speakers toward my listening position while listening to out-of-phase pink noise (actually, any out-of-phase frequencies) noting that the sound moved incrementally to the right. If I change my listening position to about 5 feet closer to the speakers, then, this migration of sound becomes less perceptible. I know that room acoustics is important but is it possible that it could be so dramatic?
It was pointed out that my system is anything but reference grade or state of the art but, unless I'm missing something, I fail to see why this is pertinent to my inquiry. I know enough about my setup to realize this and if one couples this with the fact that I don't have a dedicated listening room, the challenges are many. Hence, my requests for help.
As an aside, the problem with certain frequencies is little different from when I was using a Rogue Audio Sphinx amp with ML Odysseys. I made the change of amps about 8 months ago and switched speakers only a couple of months ago. It now seems slightly worse for those offending frequencies but, because I used the Odysseys for about 13 years, I may still be adjusting. Also likely is that the Ethos is supposedly more revealing of what's going on upstream in the system.
To answer one question regarding the comparison of live versus recorded music, especially using the piano for reference, we have a piano and, yes, the same notes either recorded or live create the same discomfort. This fact, of course leads me to the conclusion that it is not a component of my system that is the culprit for at least this issue.
Anyway, when I get some help to access the back of my equipment, I'll remove the equalizers to eliminate that variable before I continue with anymore experimenting.
The pink noise test revealed something that I otherwise may have continued to overlook as an important factor. I described the phenomenon of moving back from the speakers toward my listening position while listening to out-of-phase pink noise (actually, any out-of-phase frequencies) noting that the sound moved incrementally to the right. If I change my listening position to about 5 feet closer to the speakers, then, this migration of sound becomes less perceptible. I know that room acoustics is important but is it possible that it could be so dramatic?
It was pointed out that my system is anything but reference grade or state of the art but, unless I'm missing something, I fail to see why this is pertinent to my inquiry. I know enough about my setup to realize this and if one couples this with the fact that I don't have a dedicated listening room, the challenges are many. Hence, my requests for help.
As an aside, the problem with certain frequencies is little different from when I was using a Rogue Audio Sphinx amp with ML Odysseys. I made the change of amps about 8 months ago and switched speakers only a couple of months ago. It now seems slightly worse for those offending frequencies but, because I used the Odysseys for about 13 years, I may still be adjusting. Also likely is that the Ethos is supposedly more revealing of what's going on upstream in the system.
To answer one question regarding the comparison of live versus recorded music, especially using the piano for reference, we have a piano and, yes, the same notes either recorded or live create the same discomfort. This fact, of course leads me to the conclusion that it is not a component of my system that is the culprit for at least this issue.
Anyway, when I get some help to access the back of my equipment, I'll remove the equalizers to eliminate that variable before I continue with anymore experimenting.