A bad-sounding system can nearly always be attributed to the space in which it's operating. You can make a decent-sounding system in a 10x10 bedroom with a $50 class-D bluetooth amp, a $100 pair of bookshelf speakers, 10' of lamp wire, and a phone. Not a great system -- a decent system with no egregious flaws.
At times I listen (music focused) when my sweetie is out of the house. My wife & I both love music but at times we both need “personal listening time”. You can source whatever at the moment hits your fancy and you have complete control of the volume with no one to offend.
I had a similar experience where I bought a marantz pm ki ruby integrated amplifier. At the show room it sounded awesome. At my friends house it was awesome. When i got it home, it was lackluster. I was pissed because it was kinda pricey. I tried it in another room and it was awesome. My room was the limiting factor.
#5 transformer buzzing is almost certainly due to dc offset issue. Can be eliminated with an ifi dc blocker or emotiva cmx2+, do that before spending big bucks on electrical renovations.
Just moved into a new house with a large basement room that would be dedicated to music listening. So excited until I turned everything on and it did sound bad. I made some sound absorbers, bought some deflectors etc and after a few days of experimenting with placement "boom" Sounds amazing now.
Matter fact, With your first item, the room. You have the most important factor if your music will sound well,or not, I have had this experience with my room, no matter what gear I used, it was still bad,
May I know your experience with amplifiers? Do you notice any change from new to after being used for 10-20 hours? Do you believe in burn-in? What differences have you noticed after 100 hours of use? Thank you
After buying new speakers I noticed they were awesome about 70db, turning them up made them fatiguing and “metallic” sounding. I thought my amp was clipping but occasionally I could crank them up, forget the system and groove with the tunes. Took three months or more to break in those speakers and they still like to be warmed up. After two or three albums at a righteous volume, the system smooths out and disappears from the music again. This was also aided by finding a “focused” position for my speakers and experimenting with interconnects, speaker wires and power cords. I found there were differences between stock power cords of different gauges and shielding. I’d like to upgrade my DAC but wonder how much tweaking it will take to optimize!
My living room is not great for sound. Its exactly how you described your living/kitchen space being one long open space with high ceiling. The sound is gone when you go to the kitchen and gets very loud moving right to left in the living room.
I have the Jeff Rowland 125 power amp paired with the Schiit Freya+ tube preamp and Triangle BRO3 speakers. Some might say that the Schiit preamp and the BRO3s are not worthy of the Jeff Rowland power amp but I love the sound of my system. I play my music at moderate levels and love the sound. Sure, maybe a higher quality preamp and higher quality bookshelf speakers would get my system to sound "better" but I am not about about to break the bank to find out.
A big problem is the dealer, sort of . The dealer has spent $$$ on getting the showroom correct. Back to your room. I had a similar situation with some Dali speakers many years ago. Awesome in the dealer, not so in my room . Enter some damping.
Do you connect your CD transport into the RS130 or do you go directly into the DAC? The RS130 can upsample just wondering if it might be better to go thru the RS130. I have the RS130 too
I Had the out of phase thing happen on a new set of speakers, won't name the brand, but they were a brand new model...plugged them in and thought either this is the worst speaker I've heard in a while or something is out of phase. Switched polarity of speaker cable going into speaker and the bad just changed. Used a simple POP test app and found out that just the midrange on one of them was wired incorrectly.
Great content. Very useful and informative. Like you, I tend to use my digital sources more than analog. You cannot beta them for ease and convenience. Nonetheless, I still put a priority on my analog front end. I just enjoy the sound of records too much and even though I do not use them as much. I still make sure I am using a quality table, cartridge, and phono stage. My thinking is I enjoy both, so I still equally invest in both.
The quality of your speakers matter more then anything along with and amp and pre amp . I recently upgraded the crossovers in speakers and the change was substantially better cs factory sound
You have room issues as number 10, room issues should be number 1 on your list!!!! I spent 50k on an audio setup and yes it can literally sound disgusting in an open room, you can have weird nulls, standing waves etc. This is why I tell people that before you buy equipment make sure you have a decent room. Always!! Then fix your speaker placement
Hi, everybody. About out of phase problems I detected it from an integreated amp and the effect is that you hear the music in the periphery of the soundstage like a ring with the center like a hollow-distant sound. It turns out that the technician inverted the cables...thus easy to fix😅
The items are all new. New amplifier needs burn in, new speakers need run in, crossovers too in the speakers need burn in, many capacitors are new too .... nothing will play well .... no way!
So I am running some tower speakers from Monitor Audio (Silver 500 7G) as part of a 5.1 System and am not impressed. Maybe because I hooked them just to my AVR without using an amp…? What I dont get on the specs from MA is that they recommend 80-250W power to feed them. That is a huge range. You can get 80W from every Audiolab/Cambridge/etc. but 250W is a word.
This was a fun listen . Great top 10……learned a long time ago. Start with amp and build from that…once your main source is chosen…..speakers can be matched etc. best
Absolutely restore your vintage equipment! Your tech should be able to assist you with this. It is an investment worth making. Understand just because it still works 50 year down the road does not mean its performing to spec. I love my vintage gear, but I also love my new REL Clasdic 98. Enjoy the journey!
Sibilance is the hissing on the consonants S, T, Z that voices make when speaking or singing. Just speak those letters to yourself and you will hear the hissing. It is a very high frequency sound, between 6-9 kHz, and can be magnified to an aggravating extent, and some effects will minimize the sound, causing it to almost disappear. When it is ideal, speech will sound transparent, clear, detailed, well-enunciated, and without all the hissing sound (sibilance).
You have room issues as number 10, room issues should be number 1 on your list!!!! I spent 50k on an audio setup and yes it can literally sound disgusting in an open room, you can have weird nulls, standing waves etc. This is why I tell people that before you buy equipment make sure you have a decent room. Always!! Then fix your speaker placement, and anything else afterwards
Another reason might be buying gear based on the "review" of UA-camrs that have a new favorite speaker or best amp every time they do a review ...
😂😂😂😂😂
How true.
Oh, yes! I'm a victim of this. Twice I returned an item because I followed awesome UA-cam reviews. 😢
It's all about the cash
I agree with almost everything... Except where you "match" components based on their price.... Quality is not necessarily proportional to price
A bad-sounding system can nearly always be attributed to the space in which it's operating. You can make a decent-sounding system in a 10x10 bedroom with a $50 class-D bluetooth amp, a $100 pair of bookshelf speakers, 10' of lamp wire, and a phone. Not a great system -- a decent system with no egregious flaws.
At times I listen (music focused) when my sweetie is out of the house. My wife & I both love music but at times we both need “personal listening time”. You can source whatever at the moment hits your fancy and you have complete control of the volume with no one to offend.
I had a similar experience where I bought a marantz pm ki ruby integrated amplifier. At the show room it sounded awesome. At my friends house it was awesome. When i got it home, it was lackluster. I was pissed because it was kinda pricey. I tried it in another room and it was awesome. My room was the limiting factor.
#5 transformer buzzing is almost certainly due to dc offset issue. Can be eliminated with an ifi dc blocker or emotiva cmx2+, do that before spending big bucks on electrical renovations.
Just moved into a new house with a large basement room that would be dedicated to music listening. So excited until I turned everything on and it did sound bad. I made some sound absorbers, bought some deflectors etc and after a few days of experimenting with placement "boom" Sounds amazing now.
Matter fact, With your first item, the room. You have the most important factor if your music will sound well,or not, I have had this experience with my room, no matter what gear I used, it was still bad,
May I know your experience with amplifiers? Do you notice any change from new to after being used for 10-20 hours? Do you believe in burn-in? What differences have you noticed after 100 hours of use? Thank you
After buying new speakers I noticed they were awesome about 70db, turning them up made them fatiguing and “metallic” sounding. I thought my amp was clipping but occasionally I could crank them up, forget the system and groove with the tunes. Took three months or more to break in those speakers and they still like to be warmed up. After two or three albums at a righteous volume, the system smooths out and disappears from the music again. This was also aided by finding a “focused” position for my speakers and experimenting with interconnects, speaker wires and power cords. I found there were differences between stock power cords of different gauges and shielding. I’d like to upgrade my DAC but wonder how much tweaking it will take to optimize!
That crafty dealer grabbed you by the heels and shook you until the last quarter dropped out of your pocket.
today the real "dealers" are the youtubers... brick and mortar is 1% of the audio biz.
My living room is not great for sound. Its exactly how you described your living/kitchen space being one long open space with high ceiling. The sound is gone when you go to the kitchen and gets very loud moving right to left in the living room.
My vintage 2265 B Marantz was fully restored by a respectable company I'm very satisfied by the results.
I had a pair Paradigm 200B’s that were wired out of phase at the factory.
Hegel are famous for having a buz/hum. Ifi dc blocker. Sorted.
I have the Jeff Rowland 125 power amp paired with the Schiit Freya+ tube preamp and Triangle BRO3 speakers. Some might say that the Schiit preamp and the BRO3s are not worthy of the Jeff Rowland power amp but I love the sound of my system. I play my music at moderate levels and love the sound. Sure, maybe a higher quality preamp and higher quality bookshelf speakers would get my system to sound "better" but I am not about about to break the bank to find out.
"Some" being stereo salesmen. 😂
@@hurkamur1 that's a given 🙂
Thanks! It feels authentic and true.
I just keep investing a little bit more on speakers and then other devices at the same level.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Nice cat, btw.😊
A big problem is the dealer, sort of .
The dealer has spent $$$ on getting the showroom correct.
Back to your room. I had a similar situation with some Dali speakers many years ago. Awesome in the dealer, not so in my room . Enter some damping.
Do you connect your CD transport into the RS130 or do you go directly into the DAC? The RS130 can upsample just wondering if it might be better to go thru the RS130. I have the RS130 too
I knew someone who bought off a white van.
Got them home and found out inside the speakers were empty.
😂
I Had the out of phase thing happen on a new set of speakers, won't name the brand, but they were a brand new model...plugged them in and thought either this is the worst speaker I've heard in a while or something is out of phase. Switched polarity of speaker cable going into speaker and the bad just changed. Used a simple POP test app and found out that just the midrange on one of them was wired incorrectly.
Never experienced a 'mismatch'. Did once experience speaker break-in.
Doesn’t matter what you have, just enjoy listening to the music.
Great content. Very useful and informative. Like you, I tend to use my digital sources more than analog. You cannot beta them for ease and convenience. Nonetheless, I still put a priority on my analog front end. I just enjoy the sound of records too much and even though I do not use them as much. I still make sure I am using a quality table, cartridge, and phono stage. My thinking is I enjoy both, so I still equally invest in both.
Dig the cat.
I use two white vans as speakers.
@@davebutler3905 I have a pair of Vans, and I would never be able to fit a pair of speakers in them. They're gray, not white. Maybe that's why.
hm......how about EQ?
The quality of your speakers matter more then anything along with and amp and pre amp . I recently upgraded the crossovers in speakers and the change was substantially better cs factory sound
You have room issues as number 10, room issues should be number 1 on your list!!!! I spent 50k on an audio setup and yes it can literally sound disgusting in an open room, you can have weird nulls, standing waves etc. This is why I tell people that before you buy equipment make sure you have a decent room. Always!! Then fix your speaker placement
I like the cool cat in the background :)
Hi, everybody. About out of phase problems I detected it from an integreated amp and the effect is that you hear the music in the periphery of the soundstage like a ring with the center like a hollow-distant sound. It turns out that the technician inverted the cables...thus easy to fix😅
BAD GROUNDING CAN CAUSE ALL SORTS OF WEIRD PROBLEMS.
SO IS A AIRPLANE HITTING YOUR HOUSE, BIG BIG PROBLEMS😂andstuff
Useful info. Thanks!
Extra reason: noisy neighbors
The items are all new. New amplifier needs burn in, new speakers need run in, crossovers too in the speakers need burn in, many capacitors are new too .... nothing will play well .... no way!
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Start the new system at low to medium volume, on loop and spend one weekend somewhere else - done!
Flac sound horrendous i swapped to wav
I remember the white Van 😂
break in is important.
Is it though? "Break in" is largely hocus, it's really just acclimation.
200hrs break in should do it. But you only get the equipment for 30 days to judge whether or not you can take it back.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums 200 hrs for what? 😂 The only thing that needs "break in" is a turntable cartridge.
Yeah, I think this is basically bunk
LOL - "break-in" doesn't even exist for most components.
So I am running some tower speakers from Monitor Audio (Silver 500 7G) as part of a 5.1 System and am not impressed. Maybe because I hooked them just to my AVR without using an amp…?
What I dont get on the specs from MA is that they recommend 80-250W power to feed them. That is a huge range. You can get 80W from every Audiolab/Cambridge/etc. but 250W is a word.
This was a fun listen . Great top 10……learned a long time ago. Start with amp and build from that…once your main source is chosen…..speakers can be matched etc. best
Absolutely restore your vintage equipment! Your tech should be able to assist you with this. It is an investment worth making.
Understand just because it still works 50 year down the road does not mean its performing to spec. I love my vintage gear, but I also love my new REL Clasdic 98. Enjoy the journey!
Finding a (local) capable tech who won't rake you over the coals is easier said than done.
Chair placement
Sound advice
Room should be number 1
As stated in the video, these were not announced in any kind of order. I’ve always said room is most important of all :)
I haven't upgraded my ipod in a decade
My condolences my friend!
😂
Because I listen to reviewers instead of my ears?
Lord no
My $200 Bottlehead tube preamplifier blows away anything I've tried. Including Mcintosh.
🤨
sibilance ?
Sibilance is the hissing on the consonants S, T, Z that voices make when speaking or singing. Just speak those letters to yourself and you will hear the hissing. It is a very high frequency sound, between 6-9 kHz, and can be magnified to an aggravating extent, and some effects will minimize the sound, causing it to almost disappear. When it is ideal, speech will sound transparent, clear, detailed, well-enunciated, and without all the hissing sound (sibilance).
Why do speakers sound bright and harsh
Modern digital formats like compresded flac create harsh microdistorsions when its played, try wav format and the sounds feels more natural
@@necrodh wut? Free LOSSLESS audio codec. You are implying a loss.
I have went out!
I have "gone" is correct grammar.
@@scruffy8861I was thinking the same thing!😂
❤❤❤❤❤
Wow....the title is a bit presumptuous...dontchya think?
Do you have giant hands and long thin arms? No, I thought not. Please stop using wide a angle lens.
Cables does not matter.
😂
From your experience*
FACTS. Keep dragging the clowns. 😂
Some think they do and some think they don't. It doesn't matter. Life is short and arguing over this is a waste of time.
@@elitetrader5468 Some "think" they do, some know they don't.
You have room issues as number 10, room issues should be number 1 on your list!!!! I spent 50k on an audio setup and yes it can literally sound disgusting in an open room, you can have weird nulls, standing waves etc. This is why I tell people that before you buy equipment make sure you have a decent room. Always!! Then fix your speaker placement, and anything else afterwards