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PSB Image T6 fuzzy sound

Hello,

I just got a pair of PSB Image T6’s. I am noticing that on source material containing female vocals (Norah Jones, Feist), the high frequencies are accompanied by a fuzzy, “staticy” muddled sound. Sadly it makes the recordings pretty hard to listen to. I do not recall hearing such coloration at the store where I demo’d them (I unfortunately did not listen to the same material at the store… I plan to head back there with my discs in hand when time permits). After initially thinking I got a defective pair, I played the same material on my surrounds which are PSB Image T5’s. Interestingly enough, I heard the same coloration. Given the similarity in the sound between the two sets of speakers, I am wondering if its one of my other components. Before I go down that path and shop for and swap out cables and amps, I wanted to get some idea from those out there who have listened to these speakers. Is this fuzzy, “staticy” muddled sound a characteristic of the latest incarnation of the PSB Image line? More importantly, is there anything I can do to clear up those highs?

Thanks
Kevin

Additional Associated Equipment and Room Information:

20’ X 20’ with a 20 ft pitched ceiling at the center.
Arcam AVR 200 as Pre/Power amp
Oppo BPD 103 as CD player
Acoustic Research 6ft interconnects
10’ pair of 11 guage IXOS speaker cables.
krazeeyk
donjr
1,335 posts
 
That's interesting you made this discovery. It makes perfectly good sense because audiophiles are not Oppo's target market. It's home theater people. Each unit is preset for home theater optimization for the same reason a television is set for store display. The manufacturer can't take the chance that the store will improperly adjust the settings and therefore lose sales.

I'm sure you've noticed what a pain in the neck it is to get a new tv to have a nice picture. There's actually web sites that you can go to now that tell you what settings to use for the best picture. I've been told that these sites save people hours of time.
krazeeyk OP
24 posts
 
Indeed... for music I do miss the old system. I only had a few knobs, balance, input selector and a volume control.
b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,289 posts
 
Interesting. So it sounds like it's a combination of the oppo and your speakers. I wonder if you hooked up a different cd player if you would still hear the hissing. I also wonder what the "audio processing" feature is adjusting in your oppo. I researched the nora jones cd being a bad recording and sure enough, many complaints about the recording. I would have figured that my rig would have brought those recording shortcomings out also, but I can't hear any of it. Part of me is glad that I can't hear it, the other part of me is wondering what link in my chain of equipment isn't revealing it. Hmmm....
krazeeyk OP
24 posts
 
I share your sentiment. Sometimes ignorance can be bliss. I have a feeling if I had a dedicated CD player, I would not hear as much "hissing" on the upper end. A lot of this thought is attributed to my belief that there are just fewer settings the user can mess with. I think my next purchase may be a DAC as I have a hard time convincing myself that CD players are still the way to go. I really liked my Arcam CD72. But given that its a bit dated, I can't help but think the new DACs on the market are inferior in capability. In addition, I really like the versatility of being able to plug in different digital inputs. As I am only looking to spend $400 (which is what I paid for the used CD72 back in 2002) I just have this feeling that $400 can buy so much more today (I hope). Anyhow, on with the madness.

Oh, what components are you using now?

Thanks
Kevin
binkleyc
9 posts
 
Wow, that album is just recorded badly. The producer added a lot more air in the 10-14k range to the vocals. It is very distracting. It's a hiss to me, not fuzz though. They mixed it for earbuds. If you listen through your standard Apple white crap you will not notice it, I suspect, but you can still kinda hear those frequencies are attenuated.

Also, my speakers seem to be pretty fast and the notes in her vocal with much greater volume nearly hit me in the head. Hard to listen to at a decent normal volume. Compression, used judiciously, is sometimes highly necessary for making vocals palatable on stereos! And it's possible to automate compression just the way you would ride a vocal with a fader. That's a different issue though.

Probably turning down the output on the Oppo is helping because it might be causing actual clipping in the AVR, making it more of a fuzz than a hiss (pure distortion).
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