Am I Crazy? - Distortion Question

[SopRage]

Guys,

I posted something about this a year or two back, but have done a bit more research and wanted some expert advice.

I find, to this day, that during dialogue in movies the speech occasionally distorts during volume swings (sudden yelling,etc). I've looked everywhere I can on the internet, and while a few people on a couple sites have addressed it, I wanted to see if anyone else experiences this.

I realize I don't have an upper-eschelon system, but it's hardly bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, either. I've used two different center channels, tried three different receivers, use 12-gauge speaker wire, and have a 125-watts-per-channel amp pumping an Ascend setup. I hear it (on occasion) in PCM, Dolby, and DTS material in every configuration.

I've tried turning the volume down; I hear it at very low volumes.

I've tried listening to the same scenes in stereo, and hear it there too.

DVD, Bluray, different players, I still hear it.

Acoustic panels up, and I still hear it.

Have I lost my mind?! Am I the only one that hears this? It's sporadic, but I'm floored when I hear it on Bluray lossless movies, and I'm suspicious that I never hear it when I listen to CDs.

Does anyone else notice this? Have I lost my mind? It's making me crazy and very frustrated.

 

[yepimonfire]

same thing happens to me when people yell in movies occasionally, no matter the speakers, it is most likely the recording.

 

[manofsteel2397]

no you are not crazy i hear it too. more when i turn up the volumes but i hear it at lower volumes its just not as noticable the only time i dont hear it is on cable imgine that...

 

[skizzerflake]

This might sound completely nuts, but I had a similar problem some time back and got obsessed about it. In an act of desperation, I bought some contact cleaner and steel wool, disconnected all the cables and speaker wires (including the AC plug), cleaned the contacts and everything else I could find, de-dusted the area and reconnected everything. Amazingly, the distortion was gone and the clean sound I expected was back. Unfortunately, I did not try this one wire at a time (to find the precise culprit), but what the heck. It worked. I spent a whole afternoon at it but compared to replacing hardware, it was the best audio cure I ever had.

 

[TLS Guy]

Guys,

I posted something about this a year or two back, but have done a bit more research and wanted some expert advice.

I find, to this day, that during dialogue in movies the speech occasionally distorts during volume swings (sudden yelling,etc). I've looked everywhere I can on the internet, and while a few people on a couple sites have addressed it, I wanted to see if anyone else experiences this.

I realize I don't have an upper-eschelon system, but it's hardly bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, either. I've used two different center channels, tried three different receivers, use 12-gauge speaker wire, and have a 125-watts-per-channel amp pumping an Ascend setup. I hear it (on occasion) in PCM, Dolby, and DTS material in every configuration.

I've tried turning the volume down; I hear it at very low volumes.

I've tried listening to the same scenes in stereo, and hear it there too.

DVD, Bluray, different players, I still hear it.

Acoustic panels up, and I still hear it.

Have I lost my mind?! Am I the only one that hears this? It's sporadic, but I'm floored when I hear it on Bluray lossless movies, and I'm suspicious that I never hear it when I listen to CDs.

Does anyone else notice this? Have I lost my mind? It's making me crazy and very frustrated.

I don't notice it. I suspect you have a voltage gain circuit somewhere in your receiver that has inadequate headroom. It is before the volume stage.

In preamps, mixers etc, headroom is an important spec hardly ever specified.

Getting more headroom increases cost. I really doubt budget receivers can be made to exacting standards for the price on offer.

Headroom is something Peter Walker of Quad always was concerned about. His high gain stages always had insane headroom.

I did measure the headroom of my Marantz pre pro, and clipping did not occur until an over voltage of 14 to 15 volts on any input or output.

 

[davef]

Guys,

I posted something about this a year or two back, but have done a bit more research and wanted some expert advice.

I find, to this day, that during dialogue in movies the speech occasionally distorts during volume swings (sudden yelling,etc). I've looked everywhere I can on the internet, and while a few people on a couple sites have addressed it, I wanted to see if anyone else experiences this.

I realize I don't have an upper-eschelon system, but it's hardly bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, either. I've used two different center channels, tried three different receivers, use 12-gauge speaker wire, and have a 125-watts-per-channel amp pumping an Ascend setup. I hear it (on occasion) in PCM, Dolby, and DTS material in every configuration.

I've tried turning the volume down; I hear it at very low volumes.

I've tried listening to the same scenes in stereo, and hear it there too.

DVD, Bluray, different players, I still hear it.

Acoustic panels up, and I still hear it.

Have I lost my mind?! Am I the only one that hears this? It's sporadic, but I'm floored when I hear it on Bluray lossless movies, and I'm suspicious that I never hear it when I listen to CDs.

Does anyone else notice this? Have I lost my mind? It's making me crazy and very frustrated.

It is indeed VERY annoying and unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it other than going with less detailed loudspeakers or loudspeakers that roll-off the highs. The distortion you hear is actually in the source material itself and is the fault of the mastering studio / engineer.

Sadly, much like CD's some DVDs are well recorded and others are horrible. If your DVD player has a headphone out, plug a good quality set of headphones in and you will still hear it. This is a major pet peeve of mine and damages the audio industry such that the more revealing the audio system is, the easier it becomes to notice this distortion.

Some DVD's are so bad that I often wonder if the recording/mastering engineer ever bothered to actually listen, or if they were using such poor monitors that they were not able to hear it

 

[avliner]

Very wel said, Dave

 

[SopRage]

So the general consensus is that it's source material?

I wonder why, then, I never seem to notice the problem at theaters?

If it is the source, why don't more people talk about this? I do quick Googles on keywords regarding the problem and there are very, very few hits.

I'd love to try a high-end receiver to see if it fixes the problem, but I'm not thrilled at chucking hundreds of dollars at a POSSIBLE fix.

 

[yepimonfire]

because theater speakers dont go as high as HT speakers, they are built similarly to PA speakers, most of them roll off at 16-18khz, the distortion you hear is at a very high frequency considering it is a square waveform. oh and i am using a high end receiver and still have the problem (i think it was like 1500 retail.) believe it or not most of the theater masters are mixed very bright to compensate for the speakers. i have a setting on my receiver to attentuate this problem because some of the earlier DVDs were awfully bright. most today arent

 

[dkane360]

What movie and scene do you notice this in? I'd like to see if I can hear it/replicate it.

 

[skizzerflake]

So the general consensus is that it's source material?

I wonder why, then, I never seem to notice the problem at theaters?

If it is the source, why don't more people talk about this? I do quick Googles on keywords regarding the problem and there are very, very few hits.

I'd love to try a high-end receiver to see if it fixes the problem, but I'm not thrilled at chucking hundreds of dollars at a POSSIBLE fix.

I'm not sold on source material. I have heard disks that sound better than others, but if all of them sound distorted, then something's wrong somewhere else. I suggested checking contacts because it's cheap and a dirty connection can cause distortion. I also once ran into a "sick" speaker wire. Similarly, I had unknown distortion and when I poked around, I found that one speaker wire had developed corrosion UNDER the insulation on the wire. The copper wire had turned gray. I hadn't realized that the distortion was only one one channel, but it went away when I replaced it.