Is your system too “lean & clean sounding” ?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Khorn, May 4, 2021.

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  1. It’s all in the power supply design. That’s where the low level detail lives.

    A so so power supply will strip away the low level detail and you will have lean, uninvolving sound. Pack a good frequency response and low distortion on top of that and you have what the OP is referencing.
     
  2. Doctor Fine

    Doctor Fine "So Hip It Would Blister Your Brain"

    I tune and re-tune my main room stacks quite frequently and can alter the sub bass (below 30hZ) the bass and mid bass (30-250hZ), the midrange (200-3,000hZ) the treble (3,000-10,000hZ) and the ultra highs you don't hear so much as 'sense (7,000hZ-50,000hZ).
    Some nights it is magic but the next day I find some fatigue setting in perhaps I have it set "too revealing" "too clean."
    The speakers never need moving as they are all optimally positioned after five years of tuning the room---they are DONE.
    But all those knobs lure me into adjustments on occasion, depending on my mood and taste for the evening.

    What's the solution?

    I simply ask myself: "If this was a big nightclub sound system or a concert PA system would you say it is in tune or too skinny?"
    If the answer is "YES DAMMIT!---it's too skinny"
    I then crank up the sub-bass, bass/mid-bass and add some more mids to fill it back in.

    Then a couple months later I might go nuts and dial it back to ultra revealing for giggles.
    Then within a couple days I go BACK to a fuller sound when the novelty wears off.

    It PAYS for me to be adjustable.
    I don't always want the same sound night after night.
    And although I own five different rigs that are all fairly serious I always seem to want what I don't have...

    Being adjustable saves me a ton of money by not having to buy every darn setup going just to have variety---it gets expensive to do THAT.
    It's a pain to get to learn how to not go crazy with all the controls I have over my sound.
    But like setting the board and the EQ for a concert---you get used to what does what.

    I know what flat sounds like.
    I know what ultra revealing sounds like.
    I know what "boogie with the bottom" sounds like.
    It's all there just for my amusement.
    Isn't that what this hobby is about?
    Being amused?
    My two cents.
     
    bever70, Daring, elvisizer and 2 others like this.
  3. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    Oh so very true. My mantra has become:

    “The power supply rules!!
     
    Swann36, elvisizer and morinix like this.
  4. Technocentral

    Technocentral Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    People on hear obsess far too much, most music has top, mid and bottom range, I want to hear those frequencies reproduced accurately as far as I can tell, I think my system does that, on reference pressings nothing is too harsh, or sibilant or dull that's all I know.
     
    elvisizer and Khorn like this.
  5. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    Got rid of " lean and clean sounding "many speakers ago.
     
  6. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    No.
    if the system is removing signal from the source material during playback then by definition it ISN'T accurate!
     
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  7. allied333

    allied333 Audiophile

    Location:
    nowhere
    You are right. All an amp is, is a modulated power supply. It has to be well designed and a poly type high value capacitor on the output. Use low noise or SIC diodes.
     
    morinix likes this.
  8. big_pink_floyd_toole

    big_pink_floyd_toole I am not a bat

    Location:
    USA
    “To be [so] accurate to the source” is the definition of high fidelity.

    You can EQ to your own tastes, but it is important to start with a system that can reproduce the source material as intended. Anything less is not hifi.
     
    George P, Technocentral and Khorn like this.
  9. Daring

    Daring My quest to marry Stevie Nicks has failed

    Location:
    Grove Ok
    No...the tubes in my McIntosh MA252 preamp add just enough distortion to make my system sound "live"
     
    Tim 2 and Khorn like this.
  10. allied333

    allied333 Audiophile

    Location:
    nowhere
    Most EQs are not HI-FI using op-amps. Perhaps the latest best op-amp equipped EQ may meet HI-FI. But excellent outboard using discrete components EQs do exist.
     
    Khorn likes this.
  11. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    The very reason that I am going back to a tube preamp.
     
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  12. tIANcI

    tIANcI Wondering when the hifi madness will end

    Location:
    Malaysia
    But the question that begs to be asked is ... what does the source material really sound like? Unless, we were at the studio when it was being mastered, how do we know?

    We won’t even know how much decay was intended for the vocalist’s reverb. How much EQ was added to the drummer’s rim shot on the snare drum?
     
    Daring likes this.
  13. Daring

    Daring My quest to marry Stevie Nicks has failed

    Location:
    Grove Ok
    Agree...I have came to the conclusion that a tube pre with a well built SS power amp and horn speakers is a consistent way to to be moved .... sometimes my system brings me to tears. I love those moments.:agree:
     
    avanti1960, Tim 2 and Khorn like this.
  14. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    I think we could define it and limit it to the source at the head of our individual systems. We have control of our systems source input. If we choose to feed it rotten material then that’s what we’re gonna get no matter how accurate the system.
     
    Tim 2, tIANcI and Daring like this.
  15. Daring

    Daring My quest to marry Stevie Nicks has failed

    Location:
    Grove Ok
    This is exactly why I have set my system up to sound live. It works well for the type of music I like....a great sound system will reproduce what you feed it but....I really like a little warm added in the pre. It just seems to satisfy. You just have to make it yours.
     
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  16. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    increasing accuracy wouldn't improve a bad recording in ANY case at all- it would more accurately reproduce the badness. As accuracy increases in this example the output of the system should sound worse!
     
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  17. jupiterboy

    jupiterboy Forum Residue

    Location:
    Buffalo, NY
    Studios are not perfect. You could have a better understanding of how truly sad a recording is. I have a bunch of records and most are not so well recorded.
     
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  18. allied333

    allied333 Audiophile

    Location:
    nowhere
    You too are right. Lots of smart audiophiles here. There is a balance in clarity and less than perfect reproduction of music. When you find the sweet spot, it will always be pleasing to your ears.
     
    tIANcI and Daring like this.
  19. Daring

    Daring My quest to marry Stevie Nicks has failed

    Location:
    Grove Ok
    I'd rather eat dirt than have to listen to a clinical sounding system. Music is made by people and we are flawed. I embrace imperfection....a life lesson that was learned the hard way.
     
    tIANcI likes this.
  20. Daring

    Daring My quest to marry Stevie Nicks has failed

    Location:
    Grove Ok
    Spot-on my friend.
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  21. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    Bad recordings are devious dirty little swine designed to make your live a misery.
     
    bever70, Tim 2, tIANcI and 1 other person like this.
  22. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    I feel like I'm saying this a LOT on this forum these days, but this is yet another area where I feel like it's just preferences and there's no actual 'right way'. I personally like to have the bad recordings sound . . . . bad! :) I just want to know, always and on everything I play, that I'm getting what was put down on the recording . . . .even if that happens to be just godawful lol.
     
  23. allied333

    allied333 Audiophile

    Location:
    nowhere
    I get rid of bad recordings. Yuk. :shake:
     
    elvisizer likes this.
  24. allied333

    allied333 Audiophile

    Location:
    nowhere
    If it pleases your ears, you have arrived.
     
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  25. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    exactly! waaaaay too much "the way I like things is the ONE TRUE PATH TO HAPPINESS" going on around here lately.
     
    The FRiNgE and tIANcI like this.
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