I have tried to improve the sound of my system several times. I have bought the latest Castle Durhams (in the past), tried kef (Q range), BMW and now Monitor Audio (silver RS1)
This is going to sound really strange but they all sound too clean and polite.
I have a rotel 855 CD player and budget acoustic solutions amp and also a technics record deck.
Had the Monitor Audios a day and fed up already. Played through the freeview box for BBC6 digital, the sound is too clean and smooth, the speakers just blanket everything in a sterile soft, warm, dull, lifeless sound.
There is no edge or texture to the sound, just a woolly plodding that's sounds detached and sucked out.
Switched over to the CD player to play the last album by the House of Love who are an indie band, but you wouldn't know by listening to it on my system it sounded as though they were playing guitars with elastic bands whilst treading on eggs shells. with drums made of cloth, its that bad! Not matter how much i turned it up i couldn't get the sound to harden up and have an edge.
Before you blame it on the budget amp, i had a rotel 1062 which had the same effect, when paired with some of the latest Castle Durahms speakers.
Now what i haven't mentioned is that before i tried again with the Monitor Audios i have been using as a stop gap, a pair of £ 30 tangent standmount speakers which are just a little larger then your average satellite standmount.
The build quality is surprisingly good and i have actually enjoyed the sound
which narks me somewhat!
Anyway i disconnected the £ 350 Monitor Audios and put the little Tangents back on the stand. My speakers stands cost twice amount of the tangents and i was using some new qed silver xt speaker cable which cost as much as the tangents!
The Tangents obviously did not have the same scale but the sounded darker and not as clean with more of an edge. I turned up the volume and tried turning down the treble and i got a balanced sound. Maybe its because a small very budget speaker is calibrated to only play at normalish volumes, so by me pushing up the volume the little drivers harden up and gave the music and edge that was missing. But it certainly was better and i enjoyed listening to the CD that was dull mess with the Monitor Audios. The drums and percussion hardened up and werent all clean and fuzzy.
So i quite perplexed, i dont know what the answer is, evey speaker has done the same thing and the one pair of speakers that actually sound okay are
£ 30 budget speakers from currys!
It just seems as though the new speakers are just too revealing and maybe broadcasts on digital radio are deliberately calibrated for crap speakers..i dont know!! ?? But then what about CD replay?
They all seem to just take a signal and clean it up too much. Well thats my experience in my room.
Having said that my mate has got some kef speakers and they sound fine in his house. So i give up!
Has anyone had an experience like this?
Maybe i should buy a pair of decent older type speakers that are not as detailed as the newer ones any suggestions?
This is going to sound really strange but they all sound too clean and polite.
I have a rotel 855 CD player and budget acoustic solutions amp and also a technics record deck.
Had the Monitor Audios a day and fed up already. Played through the freeview box for BBC6 digital, the sound is too clean and smooth, the speakers just blanket everything in a sterile soft, warm, dull, lifeless sound.
There is no edge or texture to the sound, just a woolly plodding that's sounds detached and sucked out.
Switched over to the CD player to play the last album by the House of Love who are an indie band, but you wouldn't know by listening to it on my system it sounded as though they were playing guitars with elastic bands whilst treading on eggs shells. with drums made of cloth, its that bad! Not matter how much i turned it up i couldn't get the sound to harden up and have an edge.
Before you blame it on the budget amp, i had a rotel 1062 which had the same effect, when paired with some of the latest Castle Durahms speakers.
Now what i haven't mentioned is that before i tried again with the Monitor Audios i have been using as a stop gap, a pair of £ 30 tangent standmount speakers which are just a little larger then your average satellite standmount.
The build quality is surprisingly good and i have actually enjoyed the sound
which narks me somewhat!
Anyway i disconnected the £ 350 Monitor Audios and put the little Tangents back on the stand. My speakers stands cost twice amount of the tangents and i was using some new qed silver xt speaker cable which cost as much as the tangents!
The Tangents obviously did not have the same scale but the sounded darker and not as clean with more of an edge. I turned up the volume and tried turning down the treble and i got a balanced sound. Maybe its because a small very budget speaker is calibrated to only play at normalish volumes, so by me pushing up the volume the little drivers harden up and gave the music and edge that was missing. But it certainly was better and i enjoyed listening to the CD that was dull mess with the Monitor Audios. The drums and percussion hardened up and werent all clean and fuzzy.
So i quite perplexed, i dont know what the answer is, evey speaker has done the same thing and the one pair of speakers that actually sound okay are
£ 30 budget speakers from currys!
It just seems as though the new speakers are just too revealing and maybe broadcasts on digital radio are deliberately calibrated for crap speakers..i dont know!! ?? But then what about CD replay?
They all seem to just take a signal and clean it up too much. Well thats my experience in my room.
Having said that my mate has got some kef speakers and they sound fine in his house. So i give up!
Has anyone had an experience like this?
Maybe i should buy a pair of decent older type speakers that are not as detailed as the newer ones any suggestions?
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