Changing hifi sound (aka "Am I crazy?")
Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 4:32 pm
I may have posted about this before, maybe I am just losing my marbles, but as time goes on I'm convinced this is a real, non-imagined problem:
Sometimes my hifi sounds great, and sometimes it sounds horrible.
Basically, it's been going on for some time that I'd really enjoy the sound for a few days, really get into it, and experience that whole "sitting up all night digging out old albums" thing. Then I'd go back and listen to something a day or two later and it would just sound hard-toned, thin, flat and 2-dimensional. I always put it down to changes in my mood rather than to actual changes in sonics, but after the last couple of weeks I'm really starting to wonder.
I posted a mere 12 days ago about the Primare I32, and to be honest I was quite restrained about much I was enjoying it, because by that point I was in my element. I also didn't bother including the whole story, but if you haven't already fallen asleep, I'll include it here now.
When I first connected the Primare up I thought yep, it's working, sounds clean, slightly hard-toned, nothing special. Now, "slightly hard-toned" is my system's default setting, and it's the issue I've been trying to solve for the last few years, so there was nothing new there and it certainly wasn't surprising from a Class D amp. I listened to it occasionally over the next few days and nothing really jumped out to change my first impression.
One evening I had the place to myself and I thought a bit of harmless anorak behaviour might be in order, so I measured the distance of speakers from walls, moved the right speaker about an inch or 2, and, on a whim, changed the algorithm on the Wadia from A to C. I had read somewhere that C is meant to give a slightly warmer sound, so why not give it a go. I did all this without listening to a note.
Well, that evening it sounded AWESOME! Honestly, I couldn't get enough, I couldn't believe the difference in quality. Disc after disc sounded incredible, bass was deep and full, soundstage was 3d, voices sounded realistic in the room, orchestral timbres were perfect, and all-told the whole thing was just so LIFELIKE. Goosebumps galore, hifi perfection, this is why you spent those ridiculous sums on high-end gear.
However even as I was listening and enjoying, the thought struck me "we've been here before". And we have. On many occasions in the past I've had that sense of hifi nirvana only to lose it a couple of days later. I even said as much to Hazel when she arrived home, and she agreed that she'd heard the same from me in the past. I had a final listen that evening where I tried to be as objective as I could. Hand on heart, I could discern no sense of harshness from the sound, and while you can always hear potential for improvement, I really thought it was fantastic.
Over the next few nights I experienced the same, night after night, CD after CD, I was having a whale of a time. That week I listened to the hifi more than I have done in the last year, that's no lie. It was around that time that I posted about the amp, I couldn't believe my luck finding such synergy in such an unlikely place, and for the first time in a LONG time I was enjoying listening to music at home again.
Still reading? Thank you! Bear with me...
The weekend before last I was away, so I turned the hifi off before we left. Normally it stays on all the time, but not when I'm away. Last week I didn't have much free time to listen, but in the occasional moments I did, I thought it had lost some of its magic. I turned the hifi off and on a few times over the week, but left it on again over the weekend without really listening. Finally, last night I had the place to myself, so I settled in for a session.
By now you will have guessed that it sounded awful.
The thing is, it didn't just sound awful, it was back to that hard-toned, 2 dimensional, thin sound that I've been fighting forever. I gave plenty of time, tried a variety of discs and none of them were especially enjoyable to listen to. Now I stress that everything seemed to be working on the face of it. There were sounds coming from all drivers on the speakers, Wadia algorithm was still set to C, all cables were tightly connected, volume was at the exact same setting as before etc. It just sounded flat, harsh, mid-fi, it gave me no pleasure to listen to, and in the end I decided to watch TV instead.
I'm tearing my hair out at this stage, because none of this makes sense to me. It could be psychological but to be honest the perceived differences are now so vast that I don't think so. As I said, I've experienced this in the past, but this time I'm really coming around to the idea that there might be something actually going on.
But what? What could be changing? Faulty component? Loose connection? Wadia software playing up? Speakers doing something weird? Could unstable electricity supply cause this? Atmospheric conditions? Seismic activity? What the hell is going on?
Seriously, help me out here before I'm wheeled away by men in white coats!
Sometimes my hifi sounds great, and sometimes it sounds horrible.
Basically, it's been going on for some time that I'd really enjoy the sound for a few days, really get into it, and experience that whole "sitting up all night digging out old albums" thing. Then I'd go back and listen to something a day or two later and it would just sound hard-toned, thin, flat and 2-dimensional. I always put it down to changes in my mood rather than to actual changes in sonics, but after the last couple of weeks I'm really starting to wonder.
I posted a mere 12 days ago about the Primare I32, and to be honest I was quite restrained about much I was enjoying it, because by that point I was in my element. I also didn't bother including the whole story, but if you haven't already fallen asleep, I'll include it here now.
When I first connected the Primare up I thought yep, it's working, sounds clean, slightly hard-toned, nothing special. Now, "slightly hard-toned" is my system's default setting, and it's the issue I've been trying to solve for the last few years, so there was nothing new there and it certainly wasn't surprising from a Class D amp. I listened to it occasionally over the next few days and nothing really jumped out to change my first impression.
One evening I had the place to myself and I thought a bit of harmless anorak behaviour might be in order, so I measured the distance of speakers from walls, moved the right speaker about an inch or 2, and, on a whim, changed the algorithm on the Wadia from A to C. I had read somewhere that C is meant to give a slightly warmer sound, so why not give it a go. I did all this without listening to a note.
Well, that evening it sounded AWESOME! Honestly, I couldn't get enough, I couldn't believe the difference in quality. Disc after disc sounded incredible, bass was deep and full, soundstage was 3d, voices sounded realistic in the room, orchestral timbres were perfect, and all-told the whole thing was just so LIFELIKE. Goosebumps galore, hifi perfection, this is why you spent those ridiculous sums on high-end gear.
However even as I was listening and enjoying, the thought struck me "we've been here before". And we have. On many occasions in the past I've had that sense of hifi nirvana only to lose it a couple of days later. I even said as much to Hazel when she arrived home, and she agreed that she'd heard the same from me in the past. I had a final listen that evening where I tried to be as objective as I could. Hand on heart, I could discern no sense of harshness from the sound, and while you can always hear potential for improvement, I really thought it was fantastic.
Over the next few nights I experienced the same, night after night, CD after CD, I was having a whale of a time. That week I listened to the hifi more than I have done in the last year, that's no lie. It was around that time that I posted about the amp, I couldn't believe my luck finding such synergy in such an unlikely place, and for the first time in a LONG time I was enjoying listening to music at home again.
Still reading? Thank you! Bear with me...
The weekend before last I was away, so I turned the hifi off before we left. Normally it stays on all the time, but not when I'm away. Last week I didn't have much free time to listen, but in the occasional moments I did, I thought it had lost some of its magic. I turned the hifi off and on a few times over the week, but left it on again over the weekend without really listening. Finally, last night I had the place to myself, so I settled in for a session.
By now you will have guessed that it sounded awful.
The thing is, it didn't just sound awful, it was back to that hard-toned, 2 dimensional, thin sound that I've been fighting forever. I gave plenty of time, tried a variety of discs and none of them were especially enjoyable to listen to. Now I stress that everything seemed to be working on the face of it. There were sounds coming from all drivers on the speakers, Wadia algorithm was still set to C, all cables were tightly connected, volume was at the exact same setting as before etc. It just sounded flat, harsh, mid-fi, it gave me no pleasure to listen to, and in the end I decided to watch TV instead.
I'm tearing my hair out at this stage, because none of this makes sense to me. It could be psychological but to be honest the perceived differences are now so vast that I don't think so. As I said, I've experienced this in the past, but this time I'm really coming around to the idea that there might be something actually going on.
But what? What could be changing? Faulty component? Loose connection? Wadia software playing up? Speakers doing something weird? Could unstable electricity supply cause this? Atmospheric conditions? Seismic activity? What the hell is going on?
Seriously, help me out here before I'm wheeled away by men in white coats!