B&W 685's, Bright Sounding.

[PLuKE]

Hi. I have had my B&W 685s for about 10days now, Been listening to them everyday since i bought them, But they are sounded bright in the midrange and vocals at mid/high volumes, I know B&W are on the slight bright sound . I have been told to ride it out and really after about 1month of use they sound diffrent and mellow out. What are your thoughts?. I listen to all my music thought my PC, Either MP3 or lossless files, I have a pretty good soundcard and running Phono from the amp to Phono to the soundcard They are on stands if that makes any diffrance?. I have played with the equalizer on Winamp to soften the vocal and midrange and it has worked, But i dont wanna make anything sound to false. I have also been told to try using some curtains to help take the harshness away as per the B&W handbook aswell.As my amp is only 35WPC, And i listen to my music to mid/high volumes, Will this affect the sound? Maybe the harshness? or has that got nothing to do with it?.

KIT LIST
Teac AH-300 (Reference 300) 35 WPC
QED Silver Anni Cable
Audiophile 2496 (soundcard)
IXOS XHA215 (Phono Lead)

Hope you can help?.

Luke

 

[PLuKE]

Also i have been playing with the equailzer to try and soften it up alittle.So which bars do i need to play with, I have played with some but TBH i dont really know what am doing, So i did play with the equalizer but i seem to get the treble down to much so it sounds alittle muffled.

Luke

 

[j_garcia]

I have always considered the 600 series to be on the bright side and there really isn't a lot you can do about that. I highly doubt they will mellow out enough to make a significant difference. Yes, harshness can be a byproduct of not having enough power, particularly if you drive them to clipping levels. In a smaller room though, 35 real watts should be plenty. If your room is also on the bright side, taming a brighter speaker will mean some kind of room treatments, which can be as simple as curtains.

 

[no. 5]

As my amp is only 35WPC, And i listen to my music to mid/high volumes, Will this affect the sound?

It can, but it may not be the cause of your issue.

Also i have been playing with the equailzer to try and soften it up alittle.So which bars do i need to play with, I have played with some but TBH i dont really know what am doing, So i did play with the equalizer but i seem to get the treble down to much so it sounds alittle muffled.

Luke

What frequency's does the EQ allow control over?

Also, what is the room like (i.e. hardwood floors, thick drapes, many windows, etc...)?

 

[annunaki]

I have noticed that Mp3 sources tend to sound harsh in the midrange/treble area. What kind of amplifier are you running? If it is mainly occuring at mid-high volumes I would say that the amplifier could be suspect.

Knowing how the room is set up may help out as well.

 

[j_garcia]

High quality MP3 shouldn't sound harsh, but average highly compressed ones do tend to. I downloaded an example from Porcupine tree that is variable bitrate LAME (I believe) encoded and it sounds impressive to me; not lossles DVD-A level, but better than the typical redbook CD.

 

[AbyssalLoris]

Don't have much of great benefit to contribute, but here's a summary of some useful things:

1. I have read that many people consider B&Ws to be rather warm but my experience while auditioning 600 series speakers was that they were somewhat harsh and probably putting out more than they could handle well.

2. Just to make sure, are you running some reasonably thick gauge wire? I don't think this has anything to do with your problem though.

3. Why not try some uncompressed master recordings? If you want, you could grab a good CD and rip to an uncompressed format and try playing that, just for reference. I believe EAC is a good program to use for ripping. I have used it before but can't remember the specifics.

4. Lots of hard surfaces in the room could cause brightness according to the collective opinion of a lot of people. If you don't have too much or very heavy furniture, and you feel up to it, you could move it around a little bit and see if that makes a difference. Maybe you could take your coffee table and stuff out of the way so that you can determine probable causes.

5. Alternatively, you could play around with your speaker placement and see what effect that has. This should be easy to do with only 2 speakers.

Finally, considering that you haven't invested a lot of money in the rest of your audio equipment compared to many others around here, I compliment you on taking the step of buying good speakers. Forgive me if I mistakenly assume you to have missed any of the above suggestions. I don't know much myself.

 

[rnatalli]

It's definitely worth trying some of what has already been suggested to help with the brightness. If all else fails, then try different speakers.

 

[mazersteven]

If you want to correct your brightness problem, I have the answer.

Don't worry about speaker breakin.
Don't worry about curtains (room treatments).
Don't worry about placement.
Don't worry about the equalizer.
Don't worry about the wire.
Don't worry about the recordings.

Purchase a pair of these and listen for a while. Then go back to the B&W's. Problem solved.

 

[annunaki]

Good one mazer!

If you want to correct your brightness problem, I have the answer.

Don't worry about speaker breakin.
Don't worry about curtains (room treatments).
Don't worry about placement.
Don't worry about the equalizer.
Don't worry about the wire.
Don't worry about the recordings.

Purchase a pair of these and listen for a while. Then go back to the B&W's. Problem solved.

 

[Sheep]

If you want to correct your brightness problem, I have the answer.

Don't worry about speaker breakin.
Don't worry about curtains (room treatments).
Don't worry about placement.
Don't worry about the equalizer.
Don't worry about the wire.
Don't worry about the recordings.

Purchase a pair of these and listen for a while. Then go back to the B&W's. Problem solved.

HEYOOOO

You're gunna get FLAAAAAMED. But not by me

SheepStar

 

[mtrycrafts]

It's definitely worth trying some of what has already been suggested to help with the brightness. If all else fails, then try different speakers.

Your speaker will not improve over time. That is an urban legend in audio land

Room acoustics, source material and speakers are the ones you need to investigate for cause.

 

[PLuKE]

Hi.

Thanks for the replys.

Ok, The speakers etc are in my bedroom which is 12ft by 11ft and there is alot of hard surfaces in there, I dont like crap in my room, So i just have drawers and a wardrore and a bed. The floor is made of wood floorboards but with thick underlay and pretty thick carpet (semi shagpile)

My amp is a Teac AH-300 (35wpc) they guy in the shop said the amp wont have any probs powering the 685s but upgraded later will get abit more of the speakers. Am using QED Silver Anni cable. I listen what am using on my first post.

As for the equalizer i can adjust, 60,170,310,600,1k,3k,6k,12k,14k,16k. Am using winamp.

PS, Once i reply to a few more posts i will post some pics of the room (i ned 5 posts or more to post pictures).

Thanks!.

Luke

 

[rnatalli]

Your speaker will not improve over time. That is an urban legend in audio land

Agreed. If it has been 10 days and your brain still hasn't broken in and and doesn't like the sound, you probably need different speakers. Did you audition others when shopping? Why'd you go with the B&W's originally?

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Turn it off...it's killing my ears...

If you want to correct your brightness problem, I have the answer.

Don't worry about speaker breakin.
Don't worry about curtains (room treatments).
Don't worry about placement.
Don't worry about the equalizer.
Don't worry about the wire.
Don't worry about the recordings.

Purchase a pair of these and listen for a while. Then go back to the B&W's. Problem solved.

 

[Davemcc]

If it has been 10 days and your brain still hasn't broken in and and doesn't like the sound, you probably need different speakers.

That's the best.

 

[no. 5]

As for the equalizer i can adjust, 60,170,310,600,1k,3k,6k,12k,14k,16k.

Your room sounds like it's contributing, but you might be able to make it sound a little better by adjusting 6k and 12k down by 3dB (leaving the other frequencies flat), then listen for a good long time, then if that still sounds bright, then try reducing 14k too, if that doesn't work, then do 16k then 3k. Adjust by 3dB steps, you should not need to put any frequency lower than -6dB, after you have made an adjustment, listen for a long time before making another adjustment.

Mind you, I don't have Winamp, so I'm blind as to what its user interface is like.

 

[PLuKE]

Winamp. I can adjust all of them with Winamp. Should i leave the treble on flat on the amp?. But with changing the Equalizer that wont put much affect on here instruments?.

Luke

 

[annunaki]

Leave all the settings flat to start, eq and amplifier. Then start adjusting the eq in 3db steps. Start down near 1K where the ear is most sensitive and move up in frequency from there. I would expect most adjustment to take place in the 600hz to 6Khz range if it is a harsh midrange problem. Some of the higher treble frequencies may be lowered a bit to taste.

The key is to start flat and go from there.

 

[PLuKE]

Thanks. Will have a play around tonight. Working with the 600 and 1k takes the harshness away and alot more listenable. I have been told to get rid of the QED stuff and use the Van Damme 2x2.5mm UPOFC Studio Grade Blue Series cable. Somebody had the same problem but with the B&W 602 S3s and helped it alot with that cable. Any thoughts?

Luke