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Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: Un-demo
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on: April 22, 2008, 01:40:11 am
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Maybe hotmail is sending it straight to a spam box?? Hi Anthony, If you see the error, I don't ... I have now sent it to "My Messages" in the forum. Strange ... I can't imagine why this address would be rejected. Or the other way around, why an email from here is ... Peter PS: I have changed your post for the email address, to prevent from spam(bots) might they be able to use it, haha.
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: How to squeeze out that bass
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on: April 13, 2008, 07:05:50 pm
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Two different rooms also. I know you were in the front row, but bass "trapped" in small rooms compared to a large venue could account for some big differences. I know that if I shut the heavy woodend door to my listening room my room is practically sealed and the bass sufferes. For best sound I have to open the door a certain amount to let the room "breathe".
For me, because of crossover changes and changing 3 subwoofer settings (after getting the new top-end amp), I'm still struggling to get back to the type of bass I had before. Hopefully I can get in there today and do some adjustments.
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385
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: Electrostatics
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on: April 12, 2008, 08:38:37 pm
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Very, very good read Superdac. quote "A useful instrument for me personally is to clap hard in your hands in the middle of the room and at the listening position. When the direct, indirect and decayed sound is well integrated/not irritating or aggressive and repeated claps sounds natural/undistorted to your ears you are moving in the right direction to tame some of the acoustic room problems in the musical most critical area’s (the lows are another chapter). After that I use some tracks with well known soprano aria’s (Callas/Madscenes, Schwartzkopf and Norman/Strauss) to check the acoustic balances. When those soprano’s (with all their expression, dynamics and power) sounds communicative without flutter echo’s, unnatural ss sounds and/or irritating sound levels you have another start point to go any further."
I use handclaps a lot to help build a natural sound. Having someone (my poor daughter) walk around the room doing different types of claps (cupped/sharp only words I can think of) while you hang by the "sweet spot" was very helpful to me. One thing I found, even with my forward shooting dynamic speakers, is that anything in the middle of the soundstage above knee height you'll hear (think tall equipment stands between the speakers), and I would think even more so with an ESL. That goes for stuff on the wall behind the speakers. I have my equipment basically on the floor using "Brightstar sand boxes w/ 1" acrylic platforms" and butcher blocks.
Room acoustics and where you place stuff is very important! I once had a person come over to my house who owned the same speakers as I do. He wanted me to come over to see if I could help him achieve the same musical presentation I had. He was sure he just needed to buy another amp or something of the sort. He had the left speaker firing into a couch on the side wall no more than 5 feet from the speaker!!1 When I told him that there was no way he was going to get a balanced presentation as long as that couch was there ... well he just didn't really listen, insisting his wife had to have the couch there, and going back to talking about equipment changes... I told him, I'm sorry, but I couldn't help him.
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386
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: 09-u13 Cracks have vanished...
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on: April 12, 2008, 04:17:29 am
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Hope I can be clear using Cornershop album as an example (though I've heard these same exact crack sounds on other albums) (also read my new post above first): First track plays fine on all version of xxhe 2nd track is where "cracks" start to appear. Using version U8, the hard kkkerrrrrriiiii krrreerrrriii (like a loose connection; almost electrical) sounds appear...kinda follow the snare drum, but not really... they do not sound like vinyl pops/ticks. These do not show up using U13. Using U8, once the "cracks" appear on an album they continue for the rest of the album. When the 3rd track starts for Cornershop, he is sampling either a vinyl record or added in some ambient pops/hiss/clicks; these are present in both u8 and u12/u13. They are part of the recording and, I believe, intended. These vinyl noises are not the crack noises i keep talking about. Well Dave, not to keep you from your sleep because of perceived brain damage and all, when I wrote the before I was still at home, and I just couldn't wait. So I already listened. Ok, the family came down wondering whatever was going on because I never play music that early. I can only say : I can't comprehend; I took that crazy ticking Cornershop thing (and now I'm stuck with that 2nd track in my head the whole day), of which I knew that the vinly ticking goes along with the beat. The harsh cracks (not too loud but following the music Ah, you just admitted that. Psychologically we are influenced by the third track, that indeed mimics the vinyl (or whatever it is that it tries to mimic) and which is VERY similar to the other ticking. Only more exaggerated. Btw, I didn't run from 4 and further, but I would swear there are more of these exaggerating tracks. In fact they all ticked so where is the border of reality. To make a long story short, the ticking has gone (not in the beginning and other pieces of the third track), and I really don't know what to make of it. The first thing I should do now, is comparing both player situations for being as bit perfect. Of course I know they both should be as can be, but I want to be sure. Assuming both are the same, we have the most wild example at our hands on how software can differ to SQ. I mean, man, this isn't normal !! Please do not forget what I said before about this, which I won't draw back : the transients just *are* in the data, they look completely abnormal to me, I was told that can be so, and from there on we heard them. This was the sequence, so this was the placebo ? Oh no ... Until I can prove otherwise (and I will be hard working on this the upcoming days) those transients can be squeezed out of the data (before 0.9u-13 latest versions), or they are just skipped (u.9u-13). It is clear to me - by means of a couple of bold statements from a few who listened 5 minutes and posted that things had changed for the better - that this influences the complete picture. Even I can hear it hehe. But now hear this : If this really isn't incurred by software error (the being bit perfect of both versions must prove that), then we now have a tool that can tune in between following transients which really shouldn't be followed (before 0,9u-13 versions), and which does that a kind of other way around : rounding those to a pleasureable listen (0.9u-13). The tool is a real tool only when it is under my control (which it is NOT at this moment), but we have the reference. Apart from the blahblah, I would like to say that for me this morning was a moment to share with some other audiophool (preferrably "you"), because it actually brings up the desire to lit a few cuban cigars (never mind you smoke or not), have some brandy, and infinitly talk about how on earth this is possible. Never mind it's early in the morning, I can pretend it's late at night. I really really don't know, despite my own outlay earlier towards the opposite, how these ticks can happen to emerge. Remember, this was theory (for me), but now it is practice. Strangely enough now I don't dare to state so firmly what I stated before about this. A kind of scared to be wrong somewhere ...
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: 09-u13 Cracks have vanished...OH NOS
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on: April 12, 2008, 04:06:04 am
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I made a mistake in versions. I thought I had tested u12 with with that Cornershop album... now I'm not sure. I re-downloaded u12 and played that Cornershop album on the second song (where the "cracks" start to appear) and u12 doesn't show the cracks either...:/ so sorry. I need to re-load 11, 10,... to see where it stops showing up....It's not possible that playing U13 has influenced U12?? just throwing that out... I have U8 loaded still (cause I kinda liked the sound on that ver) and the cracks show up on the second song like I've heard using U8... but u12 they don't... like u13 they don't.
(I still "feel" I like u13 better than u12 for SQ,,, but maybe I should re-evaluate that over my weekend. I am so sorry to get that wrong about versions.)
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388
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: Electrostatics
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on: April 12, 2008, 02:28:03 am
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Closest I've come to this type of speaker (which isn't very close I guess) are the Genesis 2s (xover 'tween tweeters/ribbon). For me, it came down to rock... at the time I couldn't get the weight, impact, crunch I expect from rock. If all I played were string quartets or classical they would have fit the bill wonderfully. They were plenty loud,,, I guess I just like the sound of dynamic speakers better. My room is 16*22*8 ... I would have liked it bigger all around (18*25*8 maybe? ) Here's a brief on it. The garage was rebuilt to be the music room. Concrete floors with medium carpet/pad; Ceiling uses massive beams to hold two 1" wall-boards sandwiched together with damping compound and lots of screws, Heavy use of plaster with broom swirls, thick pink insulation on top (attic); Walls are 1" wallboard hung off the studs with Z-channel sandwiched with damping compounds and a 1' layer of Tectum on top(the product name, looks like compressed shreaded wheat), plaster & sand mixture spread thin over Tectum walls http://www.tectum.com/interior_walls.htm , corners have 45 degree insets with ~6" holes in the wallboard/but not the 1" tecum on top, blown in insulation in walls, carpet with medium pad; Electrical- upgraded service entrance goes to 150 watt subpanel for system (all copper wire), 6 25 amp dedicated and tweaked lines all on the same leg and balanced by 'non noisy' lines... I go back and forth on the 4 Room-tune products I have and I have a bunch of blinds I've cut into a sorta 3d shape for diffraction... they work well I think.
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: 09-u13 Cracks have vanished...
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on: April 11, 2008, 07:34:15 am
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I don't know Peter I don't know.. I do know what I now hear, and maybe you never heard the "cracks" that I heard.... there is some deliberate distortion on the album (pops/clicks to imitate vinyl, but that was not what I was hearing). The harsh cracks (not too loud but following the music and definitely not hidden and waiting to be discovered by better playback), are gone. Also, the reason I made a point about me playing around with q1 settings yesterday was, didn't someone post about crack changes after q1 setting changes? just thought playing with the q1 might have changed something... dang if I know, (although it was brief last night and not really a listening session just to see if it would play at -2 and other q1 settings..) The q1 is back to 14 though (for consistency for now), and no "cracks". Tonight's the first time I've really had a chance at a good listen... and it's been sounding fun, fun enough not to want to go back and forth with other settings/players tonight... that's a good sign.
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / 09-u13 Cracks have vanished...
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on: April 11, 2008, 05:46:05 am
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... at least so far 09-u13 Q1 14 (although the other night I was moving it around) no boxes checked... not even ldn 16/44.1 single core prios @ nothing
Just went back and revisited two albums that exhibited obvious cracks to me "Miracle Fortress - Five Roses" & "Cornershop - When I was born for the seventh time.." sounded frickin fabulous... well... I'm still getting used to u13... it's like no other animal I've heard. To me ...I can kinda see the dynamic relationship to 11 & 12, but they sounded, well, distorted may not be the right word but...to me things were too much on edge, (not just the cracks) I think (if I understood you right Peter) that you thought these "crack" sounds that kinda followed the music were actually part of the music and that XXHE was just bringing them out...if that's what you thought, it isn't true... those sounds are gone and they didn't belong part of the music. 09-u13 is so clear, yet nonfatiguing, so live sounding; for rock like standing in front of the stage. I haven't compared but once with u8,,, I'll go back and forth, or check that box, if you really think that is the same as u8 (I haven't checked ldn box yet...), but u13 is very interesting to say the least. I know with u8 vs u12 it was almost immediate that I could tell u8 was superior for me... that is not the case with u13... very interesting. but most important Those distressing tweeter worrying crack distortions are gone. Now I can concentrate on SQ again.
edit Also just checked three albums that alway threw up crack detect errors: one album still does (zero7 - remixes) but two don't and begin to play (Fridge - The Sun & Radiohead - In Rainbows). hmmm
and yes, every single album I've mentioned you should go out and buy hehehahha, god I'ma snob
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