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Distorted mids

M

mathew hart

Active Member
Guys, I'm having some issues in the mids section of my setup, it only seems to be in certain tracks. Any ideas what could be going on here? I've posted my main setup below. Any help would be appreciated.

Microsoft surface pro 4 (FLAC files only)

Conrad Johnson DB-2B tube CD player

Conrad Johnson ET3 Pre
Bugle boy 12ax7 / 6dj8

Jolida SJ 502a
Telifunken 12au7
Bugle boy 12ax7
Kt120s/GE Nos 6550

Dynaco mkII
Bugle Boy 6dj8
Mullard 5ar4
Kt120/EH 6550

Yamaha ns-1000/ JBL 4311b / JBL4312A
 
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That's a lot of gear. You really need to narrow things down a bit. I notice you're running 12AU7's in the Jolida, which are supposed to be 12AT7's as phase spiltter's.

jeff
 
I'm sorry I meant 12at7s, as far as gear I don't run it all at the same time, I switch off depending on mood and audio I want to listen to. The dynacos don't really play nice with the Yamahas all the time, the jolida is a much nicer pairing for those, the jbls on the other hand sound great with the dynacos and the jolida. I find the Yams are pretty picky. I don't think it's bad recordings. I also only have the volume on the surface pro set at 75% to not max the audio card out. It's more specific types of music more than tracks. For instance popier type upbeat musics the mids sound stressed. Acoustics lighter stuff is clean and clear, sounds very good. It's almost like super processed music there is an issue, I understand every speaker listed are monitors and this could be the reason, I have not tried the dahlquist or the infinities to see if this is the same as they add color to the audio.
 
mathew hart said:
For instance popier type upbeat musics the mids sound stressed. Acoustics lighter stuff is clean and clear, sounds very good. It's almost like super processed music there is an issue,
Click to expand...

Well there is an issue with current pop music, that is horribly compressed and brickwalled, but that isn't exactly news.

jeff
 
vinylkid58 said:
Well there is an issue with current pop music, that is horribly compressed and brickwalled, but that isn't exactly news.

jeff
Click to expand...

It is frustrating how music seems to be recorded to play at a constant volume these days (GET OFF MY LAWN!). Back in a previous life when I worked in radio broadcasting, the studio monitors, of course, played back what was "just about to go to the transmitter", and it always struck me how awful the program material sounded after having been run through the compressor.

I am thankful that my kids don't listen to much current pop music; my middle-schooler loves the Beatles and my 9 year old is partial to the Rolling Stones and Miles Davis.
 
Yeah bad recording: we all faced that one day or another.

On my McIntosh preamp, sometimes the (blue of course) meters barely move, so that tells me it's computer mixed to max the bandwidth. And it sounds bad... No dynamics.
I am also teaching my son to recognized good sound versus compressed streamed crap... So far tube sound from uncompressed source is winning, how surprising.
 
Does the distortion occur with both sources, CD and Surface Pro? How is the tablet connected - are you using the Surface Pro's headphone jack or running through a DAC?
 
Try running a 20hz-20khz wave through it and see what happens. You can use an iPhone or iPod Touch, download a free sine generator app, and hook it into your system with a 1/8 to RCA cable.
 
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