Still Not There......

[Texaz]

Howdy,

Not 100% happy with audio quality of my system. I've recently been getting some good HDCD (Neil Young and Grateful Dead reissues most recently). There is a wonderful clarity BUT each has a common defect which I'm thinking is my system or procedures.

What's happening is hard to explain but a kind of brittle edge, almost a jitter but that's too dramatic a word. It just sounds like it's gonna break into static but never does.....Not quite an over brightness but a jagged edge. Sort of uncomfortable listen experience.... Sounds like it's gonna collapse... OK I give up trying to describe it!

Here's how I'm doing it

Ripping to my 2017 iMac with dBPoweramp to FLAC level 5 lossless from an Apple Super drive

Using Audirvana as a player. USB to a Schiit Eitr. The coaxial to a Hegel Rost and playing via Focal 706 speakers.

I have it all hooked up with better than cheap cables. Some $20 and $30 options. I know cables are a controversial subject but there ya go.

Oddly more quiet acoustic sounds GREAT! I had Grateful Dead Mars Hotel on just now and the regular album sounded as I said BUT now the solo acoustic Unbroken Chain is Spectacular! Sounds like Phil is in the house!

Again it's a common effect so not just one album but not all..... sigh....

Any clues?

Thanks,

Texaz

 

[NorseMythology]

Could it be your room, do you have a lot of windows? I assume you have tinkered with placement, how is your room setup, distance between speakers and distance from you, distance from back wall etc.

Not that I am asking you to give us that info, just things to consider.

Hook it up in another room maybe, just so you can start to isolate the issue.

 

[pewternhrata]

My opinion, because I know the feeling when my system isn't up to its potential...its all in the cut of the album and how critical you are at the moment. I have no complaints in my system, but I will say some days it just doesnt sound good. I find myself listening to a broader range of music and I can almost always find something to bring me back.
I could go on and say maybe you need different speakers or equipment, and at a baseline if you just are not happy, then yes you are probably due for an upgrade. However you say at times it's all there, then unfortunately (lol) turn it off for a bit, let your ears rest.

 

[NorseMythology]

True, some albums may need some computers EQ as well, some may scoff at it but if it takes the edge off and makes it more enjoyable, why not?

The better your system the more it exposes bad recordings or just differences between them.

 

[Bucknekked]

My opinion, because I know the feeling when my system isn't up to its potential...its all in the cut of the album and how critical you are at the moment. I have no complaints in my system, but I will say some days it just doesnt sound good. I find myself listening to a broader range of music and I can almost always find something to bring me back.
I could go on and say maybe you need different speakers or equipment, and at a baseline if you just are not happy, then yes you are probably due for an upgrade. However you say at times it's all there, then unfortunately (lol) turn it off for a bit, let your ears rest.

I'm going to give a 2nd vote to grabbing a mirror and looking at yourself as a possible cause of discontent.
I have my system dialed in, tune up, and pretty much as good as it gets. I know that. And my mind is pretty comfortable with that. There are days however when I go in to listen and the system sounds "off". Its hard to put my finger on exactly. But my senses tell me something very akin to what your description is like. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but it just sounds not as good as it should.

When that happens to me now, I just fold up my tent and come back after a listening break. Works everytime. Give my ears/mind/imagination a break and my system is returned to its glory days.

As human beings we are the least reliable parts of our systems. We are often a squirmy bag of goo that for reasons we can't fathom can just get jaded at times. YMMV. Caveat Caveat Caveat. no persons were injured in the expression of this opinion.

 

[snakeeyes]

I like to increase the sub trim sometimes for a little spice on certain songs.

 

[lovinthehd]

Are you trying to capture the decoded HDCD? I briefly looked at this thread in the Steve Hoffman forums about it and it mentioned a special plug in for dbpoweramp and something about a 6dB boost setting to avoid clipping http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/hdcd-ripping-properly-to-24bit-flac.716442/

 

[MrBoat]

I have yet another thought on the matter. Many of today's flat measuring speakers are too revealing for mainstream recordings, period. I actually keep a system just for that. Anything at or near audiophile grade sounds superb on my system. Anything less and it lets me know it. I thought it was just me and I hear the same translation with other people's higher end speakers. I have a pair of old 3-way Fisher speakers with 15" woofers and it plays AC/DC as good as anything I have ever heard. I am willing to keep them for the times I really want to rock out.

 

[KenM10759]

Do you have a good disk player you could try? I would attempt to see if a good player connected to the Hegel Rost, or if the player has pre-amp analog output perhaps direct to whatever power amp you're using for the Focal speakers. That would take the ripping routine out of the mix for testing purposes and give you a different playback of what's on the disk.

 

[mattlach]

Still Not There......

Silly, there is no "there"

You will eternally find fault with one or more of your components. Upgrade one, and it will now resolve better and reveal a fault in one of the others.

This is how otherwise rational people work their way up to car priced audio jewelry

That said, it's tough to tell what is going on from your description. It could just be that you have many hard surfaces in your room and this particular combination of speakers and amp are thus too bright for your listening area.

Could also be something weird going on with that Schiit USB to spdif adapter.

Or maybe your ripping/encoding is the problem?

Try listening on other devices and other hardware and comparing and seeing if you still hear it. This is probably the only way to get down to root cause.

One thing I would try is to (just for testing purposes) wire a line out from the macs 3.5mm audio jack straight to the RCA ins on the amp (bypassing the USB and Spdif setup, as well as the DAC in the DAC/Amp) and seeing if it still sounds the same. If it does, then you know that isn't the problem and can move on to something else.