-Source Options-

Autor

Beitrag

neono
Ist häufiger hier

#1 erstellt: 12. Apr 2010, 19:17

It must be almost one year since by last post.

Although, ive been checking in from time to time.
Good to be back in the forum again.
This time , im going to bore you all with my silly doubts..

.

Ive been experementing with my modest little setup.

Somehow ,im am not happy the way my setup sounds now.
Now i know , exactly what 'Sounding thin / anaemic' mean.

. May be my tastes are getting better..

i know that weakest link in my setup is my source , followed
by my amp , my room etc..most importantly the lossy formats
that ive been playing.

The last thing that i want to do is ,to change my speaker , as im not sure whether i got the best out of them yet..

I got myself an Airport Express and started using my Nettop
as a source, streaming lossy & loseless files to my amps
DAC. The sound was quit good . they say its bit to bit identical to the source. But i could not decipher any signif
icant improvement . I dont know what was it lacking in, but
wasnt that great.

Now, playing a wave file through a CD player & streaming it
'bitperfect' via AE (minus all enhancements)- Is there anything more ,that a CD player can do about the sound ?

One thing about the AE is that, now my nettop is a source
as well as a remote. Its so convenient. Without ever having to get up from my bed/seat.

[Beitrag von neono am 12. Apr 2010, 19:19 bearbeitet]

sivat
Stammgast

#2 erstellt: 13. Apr 2010, 03:13

I do not believe ..however bad your source might be...it can cause the sound to be thin/anemic..

You problem seems to be one of cable...or improper combination of equipment.

Regards
Siva.

neono
Ist häufiger hier

#3 erstellt: 14. Apr 2010, 14:26

you mean , buying a cd player is not going help much?

Arj
Inventar

#4 erstellt: 14. Apr 2010, 17:42

I think what siva means is, although upgrading the source may get you benefits, it may not solve your main problem. Are you sure the problem is due to the source ? Of so borrowing a better cdp from someone might be a good option to find out.
My first suspect would be the amp-speaker combination.
BTW what is your setup like ?

[Beitrag von Arj am 14. Apr 2010, 17:45 bearbeitet]

neono
Ist häufiger hier

#5 erstellt: 19. Apr 2010, 11:04

Monitor audio B2 , driven by a marantz AVR via
a QED silver anniversary , cable.

Source , im now using a laptop to stream to an airport express, connected to the AVR via a Toslink mini..

Must be the avr then ...

Arj , do my kind of speakers work well with valve amps.
-Sensitivivity @ 90db.

Shahrukh
Inventar

#6 erstellt: 19. Apr 2010, 11:32

neono schrieb:

Arj , do my kind of speakers work well with valve amps.
-Sensitivivity @ 90db.

I would think so. Dunno how they would sound. But you could get decent levels with about 15 watts or so.

Arj
Inventar

#7 erstellt: 19. Apr 2010, 15:19

from the speacs and the manufacturers own recommendations of min 30 W, it should do well with tubes but not the low power type. plan to have at least 25W,
i would also guess on the amp as the Monitor audio bronze series are known to be musical.If possible do try to borrow a good amp (SS or Tube) and try it out with your speakers.

bombaywalla
Stammgast

#8 erstellt: 19. Apr 2010, 19:18

neono schrieb:

It must be almost one year since by last post.

Although, ive been checking in from time to time.
Good to be back in the forum again.
This time , im going to bore you all with my silly doubts..

.

Ive been experementing with my modest little setup.

Somehow ,im am not happy the way my setup sounds now.
Now i know , exactly what 'Sounding thin / anaemic' mean.

neono schrieb:

Source , im now using a laptop to stream to an airport express, connected to the AVR via a Toslink mini..

A couple of good suggestions already from some of the members, I'll add my 2 paisa worth:
* it is very possible that lossy audio files will yield "thin & anemic sound" since there's a lot of loss of info in the compression algorithms that shows up as severely degraded sound. If this is the reason, you can easily resolve it by streaming .WAV or .FLAC files.
* mini Toslink - this, IMO, is not the best method to transport digital signal to your AVR's DAC. Toslink in general is notorious for introducing extra jitter 'cuz the medium of transmission is plastic. Is there anyway you could use a BNC connector to your AVR DAC? If not, can you use a standard RCA cable? RCA would be better than Toslink IMO.
* Could also be your QED silver anniv cables - silver cables not done correctly are also known to thin the sound.
* Could be your Monitor Audio speakers. Are they fully broken-in?

Basically your problem could be anywhere (as indicated indirectly by sivat). 1st thing you need to do is narrow down the most likely location of the issue: file format? Toslink connection? interconnect or speaker cables? speaker not broken-in? Once you've narrowed it down, then concentrate on discovering the error otherwise you'll be looking for a needle in a haystack.
FWIW.

neono
Ist häufiger hier

#9 erstellt: 21. Apr 2010, 06:12

Ive been streaming loselss -Flac , ALAC etc

Unfortunately Airport Ex accepts only mini toslink ,if i wantto use my AVRs DAC . Analogue output from AEX , is supposedlyinferior in sound quality. I never tried it though.

May be 'streaming' by itself is not a very good idea ..?

The speakers are 3 years old ..broken
I get to use them only once in 2 weeks , sometimes , once
in a month, when i get home..a few hours.

will ,infrequent usage bring a speaker back to pre-break in
status..?

Ive often noticed , that when i listen to them after a long
time, they sound edgy..next day somehow , the sound
mellows up.

Could be a psychaccoustic phenomenon.

[Beitrag von neono am 21. Apr 2010, 06:13 bearbeitet]

Arj
Inventar

#10 erstellt: 21. Apr 2010, 10:05

neono schrieb:

May be 'streaming' by itself is not a very good idea ..?

streaming is not that bad..and the DAC in the AE while not great is better than the AVRs.

I have found the AE to be pretty ok even in the analogue section.

bombaywalla
Stammgast

#11 erstellt: 21. Apr 2010, 12:46

neono schrieb:

Ive been streaming loselss -Flac , ALAC etc

Unfortunately Airport Ex accepts only mini toslink ,if i wantto use my AVRs DAC .

OK, then it seems that you are stuck for better or for worse.

neono schrieb:

The speakers are 3 years old ..broken
I get to use them only once in 2 weeks , sometimes , once
in a month, when i get home..a few hours.

will ,infrequent usage bring a speaker back to pre-break in
status..?

Ive often noticed , that when i listen to them after a long
time, they sound edgy..next day somehow , the sound
mellows up.

Could be a psychaccoustic phenomenon.

that's quite infrequent use of your speakers indeed. Yes, I've been advised that infrequent use of your speakers could very possibly bring it back to pre break-in status. The break-in process (as I understand it) deals with making the rubber surround of the woofer more pliable (the woofer needs the most work-out compared to the MR & TW). Then, if you do not use it much & the woofer just sits there, the synthetic rubber (I believe that it's butyl rubber these days) becomes hard again. it's easier to re break-in in that the process is much faster time-wise but I believe you are correct in hearing an edginess after several weeks of laying off listening.