PSB Image T6 fuzzy sound

Hello Okeeteekid. Thank you for taking the time to go through the listening exercise. The reply is much appreciated. You may be onto something with the bad recording idea. After B_Limo's response regarding the cables as a possible culprit, I swapped out the pair running out of the OPPO that went into the CD inputs of the Arcam for a different set (same model, same manufacturer). I heard the same thing, which leads me to think that the bad sound isn’t coming from that cable itself. I have a 99 cent pair that I am looking to try later today to see how the sound changes. I am not expecting much, but for a buck, it has some entertainment value. The only drawback is, my wife is getting pretty tired of Norah Jones.

During the process, I started to wonder if it was that particular set of RCA jacks on the Arcam, so I used an auxililary set instead. I got the same results. I guess if there is anything positive to come out of it, I am happy to know that the Arcam is consistent.

Being even more curious, I next decided to bypass the analog output from the Oppo and use the optical output instead. The bad hissing sound was not there. Unfortunately, some of the other resolution also went with it as I suspect the DAC in the Arcam is no where near as capable as that of the Oppo. I’ll have to spend some more time listening to determine what’s been improved and what’s be degraded. That’s all part of the maddness that makes this hobby fun right?

In terms of the Norah Jones recording, the thought of it being a bad recording never really occurred to me. For as long as I’ve been dabbling in this hobby (on and off since 2002), I’ve always thought it was a great recording. Thank you for giving me the new perspective. On my previous system which I thought was superior component wise (Meadowlark Ospreys, Bryston BP-20, Bryston 4bst, Arcam cd72) to my current setup, I never recalled the sound being so apalling. That system is still in the “family” so one day I think I’m going to take the Oppo over and see if the hiss is there. Should be fun.

Thanks again,
Kevin

I don't know about the bad recording idea. I do agree that some recordings are bad in some spots but you are hearing it all over the place. I don't know though I could be wrong, but still, good speakers should sound good most of the time and if they make "the recordings hard to listen to" why would people buy them. The point is to make the recordings enjoyable to listen to, to take you away so you get lost in the music. Keep us informed on what you find out!

I've had CD's that have gone bad that can make some funny sounds, sometimes similar to what you are experiencing. If you can get your hands on a duplicate CD, it'd be interesting to pop that in and see if the problem persists.

Last year when i auditioned the magnepan 1.7's i brought along my Nora Jones cd to see what it sounded like on them, the dealer told me that the Nora Jones cd was badly recorded, he actually pointed all what you are hearing out to me on the new maggies, on less revealing speakers you won't hear it.

Thanks Okeeteekid. I've heard magnepans are super revealing. I think I may have stumbled on the source of the problem. Last night I spent some time listening to Pandora through the Oppo. I heard the same high frequency fuzz. I started to think a bit and decided to poke around the "audio processing" features that come with the Oppo. It turns out that the factory settings have some dB adjustments that come with the player out of the box. There is a feature that lets you fine tune these for movies. Taking a stab in the dark, I set the levels to 0. After playing the Norah Jones CD with these new settings, the fuzz was taken away. Looking back, it turns out the Oppo is a really "smart" player. To "smart" for someone like me =).

Thanks again everyone,
Kevin