Need help with strange distortion on Brian Eno "Apollo", track 9!!!

Okay, I am doubting my system again. I was listening to Brian Eno's "Apollo" album tonight at a moderate volume and heard a tad of fuzzy/peaking distortion during certain passages in the left channel of the guitar track throughout the song. Then I listened to it on the headphones and didn't hear the same distortion. My headphones aren't that accurate, though. The song was track 9......"Deep Blue Day". Could some of you folks out there with real nice reference systems or expensive headphones give this track a listen and tell me if A) the slide guitar track is crystal clear or B) it peeks/distorts at certain moments? I am dying to find out if my speaker is toasted or not.

 

Thought I would bump this up because I had posted it very late last night and I'm not sure it got any exposure. I'm really anxious to hear what people have to say about this one.

 

Okay, here are the places in the song where I am hearing crunchies in the guitar track:

1:49- the most obvious distortion is here.
2:00-2:15- a few slight fuzzies in here
2:40- barely detectable
3:10- barely detectable

 

I don't know it this helps, but I have the Eno vinyl box set "Working Backwards 1983 - 1973", which includes every individual LP from Here Come the Warm Jets to Apollo, plus a few bonus LPs.

I listened to the track you indicate "Deep Blue Day", albiet off the original vinyl LP, and I do not hear any distortion at all. So what you indicate might be something with regard to the CD version you own.

Personally, I can't see how that song, which is very atmospheric and laid back, could cause any "clipping" or a signal that could damage a speaker, but I guess anything is possible.

One thing I did hear on the LP was a very nice pronounced, deep and clear, bass throught the track. It could be possible that the bass is causing the problem, making you think that it is the guitar (pedal steel guitar it sounds like, or it could be a slide guitar) that is causing the problem. It may just be the heavy bass causing an overdriven signal to your speakers. Couldn't say for sure, though.

 

I have a number of Japanese Eno LPs and Apollo is one of them. I just played that track and there's no distortion on the LP.

I did pick up a copy of Music for Films cheap on CD in the late '80s. I recall that there was at least one moment where a relatively loud sound came into the picture and it was pure distortion. It seemed like the album was simply mastered after setting a general recording level and no care was taken to account for an intermittent peaks in the musical program. If your CD is an old version, that may be the case, as well.

Cheers,
Chris

 

Just a thought - switch the left and right speakers and see if the distortion occurs in the other speaker. You don't seem to indicate that this track may have damaged the speaker, so I wouldn't worry about frying the other one. It would let you know... unless you suspect both speakers.

 

I've managed to misplace my copy but I'll keep looking. Also, if you want to hear this music used in a really unique way, find a copy of the movie titled "For All Mankind". It's a documentary film using actual footage from all of the Apollo space missions with Eno's (and others) music for the soundtrack. His music dominates the soundtrack and it fits beautifully with the footage of space.
dave
#24

 

I tried switching channels and I heard the same distortion in the other speaker. I also think I could hear the most pronounced bit of distortion on the headphones. It may be a cd issue as the sound I am hearing sounds exactly like digital distortion. Hopefully somebody will post who has a copy of the cd.

 

I also bought the LP when it was first released. My UK pressing was fine. I can easily see that there could be noisy pressings out there.

Cheers,
Chris

 

Prix,
I have this CD (EGCD 53; "Mastered by Nimbus"; looks like a European pressing), but I could not hear what I think you are referring to; neither on speakers nor on headphones. There are some noises I may identify as (very slight) tape overload or some sort of (very slight) clipping (from A/D conversion or recording compression artifacts, maybe?); but this is happening throughout the disc with many guitar transients and not at these spots you were pointing to. I have also looked at the waveform at those time index points, but couldn't see anything special going on (no clipping; no maximizing; no visible compression). Sounds to me like you have a defective disc...
Mabe you should compare your disc with another one at your dealer's.
Greetings
Thomas

 

I have cd's that distort on certain players and then not on others.

Unrelated: If I were to play that track "Deep Blue Day" loud-ish on my Magnepans, I'd get frame rattle. Elvis Costello's voice on "Almost Blue" does it too.

Apollo is my favourite Eno lp / cd. It does not distort over here.

 

Thomoz
I've got a similar problem with my Apogees playing the heartbeat from "Dark Side Of the Moon" and the "American Beauty" movie score CD. It occurs that I have a room mode at quite exactly 30 Hz which is also the resonance frequency of my Apogee bass panels. Instead of "boom-boom / boom-boom" at the Floyd's heartbeat, it goes like boomffrrrrrr-boomffrrrrrr; quite annoying. But everything is fine with natural instruments...
Happy listening anyway
Thomas