I like my system but rock music sounds less than ideal, any thoughts?

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

I love my system, on certain recordings. It sounds great with accoustic stuff, great with vocals and pretty darn decent with classical too. Dance music isn't too shabby either.

It however sounds far less with rock music, whenever I listen to The Strokes, Fall Out Boy or even Tacking Back Sunday for example it just sounds like all life has been sucked out of it, and guitars become quite screechy. This especially happens with TBS and FOB, the recording quality of the albums is crud, but it just sounds so much more entertaining when I listen to it out of my Zen Vision:M and Sennheiser HD25-1's.

I think it's to do because of the synergy (or lack there-of) between my speakers and Marantz stuff, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[John Duncan]

I reckon it's because proper "hifi" and rock are not always the best of bedfellows. The visceral thrill of a mesa dual rectifier turned to 11 doesn't necessarily sound all that visceral on revealing systems. If I could, I'd have an 'acoustic' hifi and a 'rock' hifi, but sadly this is impractical, so my rock hifi tends to be my ipod and phones.........

 

[d_a_n1979]

IMO i think you'd be best at changing the speakers for either the B&W 602 S2's or S3's (if youre happy going down the 2nd hand route via eBay etc...) or take a look at the B&W 685's.

Also; with regards to your amp and source; i think looking at either the NAD C355BEE or NAD C352 integrated amps along with the NAD C542 CDP would give you much better synergy and will also open your eyes to the difference in sound quality etc...

You could also possibly take a look at the Cyrus 6v2 integrated amp and Cyrus 6 CDP; both are very good and suit B&W speakers to a tee but the CDP could be a little too forward for some rock music...

 

[Anonymous]

d_a_n1979:IMO i think you'd be best at changing the speakers for either the B&W 602 S2's or S3's (if youre happy going down the 2nd hand route via eBay etc...) or take a look at the B&W 685's.

Also; with regards to your amp and source; i think looking at either the NAD C355BEE or NAD C352 integrated amps along with the NAD C542 CDP would give you much better synergy and will also open your eyes to the difference in sound quality etc...

You could also possibly take a look at the Cyrus 6v2 integrated amp and Cyrus 6 CDP; both are very good and suit B&W speakers to a tee but the CDP could be a little too forward for some rock music...

Interesting thoughts, but wouldn't the 602's just be more of the same? I like my 601's, the ammount of bass is good (sometimes even too much). I feel they have a slight midbass hump, which should give the impression that there's more bass coming from the speakers than there actually is. The NAD pair might bring better synergy, but I think that pair (and the Cyrus pair) suits speakers alot better than my 601's. I sadly do not have enough money to do an entire system overhaul.

I'm keen on keeping my Marantz stuff, it's built to last and I have a feeling that the pair has a lot more to offer than I'm currently hearing. I think the speakers are letting the system down a bit, and there's not much synergy. I think the NAD pair you suggested would be more of a step sideways as opposed to an upgrade. Maybe it would be an upgrade if I decide to keep the speakers, but I think the speakers are currently the bottleneck.

It may just be that my amp and cdp just really aren't suitable for rock music, but I do really want to keep them. Does anyone have a suggestion for a pair of speakers that could improve my SQ when listening to rock music and would form a proper synergy with the amp and cd player?

 

[Anonymous]

Systems that don't play rock are not good systems - period! Rock is no different to classical music. The system doesn't know the difference between Mettalica and Wagner. The problem is the system obviously isn't working well together. A system that will only play one type of music is as good as a chocolate fireguard because it is stopping your love of music from growing and developing.
The best way to proceed is to stick the whole system in the car and take it to a decent shop. Tell them you need to fix what's up and take some CD's that don't work. Let them show you something (within budget) that does work on those CD's and make sure you try that at home before you part with the cash.

 

[Thaiman]

get yourself a pair of ART and be happy forever

 

[Anonymous]

You have headphones, so stick them in the amp. If it sounds fine, then you want new speakers.

I reckon your marantz stuff is the problem though tbh. All there electronics ive heard has been under £300, but all has had a certain quality to it that i found someone must like, but not me. It was just to rounded. not mushy or cluttered or even that laid back. It just seemed everything was a bit to close together, like a lack of dynamics. Useless for hard fast dance, which is how i benchmark stuff for myself. Rock surely needs large fast swings.

Why did they stop putting headphone sockets on every component. I smell a conspiracy to keep me buying lol

 

[JoelSim]

Jan Hibma:Hi all,
I love my system, on certain recordings. It sounds great with accoustic stuff, great with vocals and pretty darn decent with classical too. Dance music isn't too shabby either.

It however sounds far less with rock music, whenever I listen to The Strokes, Fall Out Boy or even Tacking Back Sunday for example it just sounds like all life has been sucked out of it, and guitars become quite screechy. This especially happens with TBS and FOB, the recording quality of the albums is crud, but it just sounds so much more entertaining when I listen to it out of my Zen Vision:M and Sennheiser HD25-1's.

I think it's to do because of the synergy (or lack there-of) between my speakers and Marantz stuff, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any ideas?

Rock is the weakest genre on my system by quite some distance, too many warts revealed I'm afraid.

ÿ

 

[Frank Harvey]

Your Marantz pairing are pretty decent, maybe atad on the soft side for rock, but still decent equipment. As good as any £250 speaker will be, they deserve better speakers. This a very personal choice, and should be chosen with great care to work well in your room and with the connecting equipment.

You are right, the 602's are just more of the 601's, and won't sort out your problem, especially if you feel the 601's have too much bass sometimes. Try alternatives like KEF's XQ10's, Dynaudio's Excite X12, and couple of Focal offerings with different styles of music on the end of your equipment and see what you think. Obviously you have floorstanders to look at as well, but if over exuberant bass can be an issue, then most of these will also be a problem.

Do take into account that a lot of rock isn't particularly well recorded/mastered, and much of it is more compressed nowadays. I usually use Rage Against The Machine's album of the same title and RHCP's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and a couple of Nirvana's as an idea of how a system can deal with heavier music.

 

[John Duncan]

JoelSim:Jan Hibma:Hi all,
I love my system, on certain recordings. It sounds great with accoustic stuff, great with vocals and pretty darn decent with classical too. Dance music isn't too shabby either.

It however sounds far less with rock music, whenever I listen to The Strokes, Fall Out Boy or even Tacking Back Sunday for example it just sounds like all life has been sucked out of it, and guitars become quite screechy. This especially happens with TBS and FOB, the recording quality of the albums is crud, but it just sounds so much more entertaining when I listen to it out of my Zen Vision:M and Sennheiser HD25-1's.

I think it's to do because of the synergy (or lack there-of) between my speakers and Marantz stuff, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any ideas?

Rock is the weakest genre on my system by quite some distance, too many warts revealed I'm afraid.

ÿ

Yeah rock and hifi don't mix, to my mind. AC/DC without a bit of harmonic distortion is just wrong.

 

[JoelSim]

I'm surprised that anyone who likes rock is into hifi...it's like a foodie shopping at Asda

(stands back...)

 

[Anonymous]

So what would be the best system for

1. Rock?

2. Dance?

3. Rap?

4. Indie?

5. Classic?

 

[Alec]

JoelSim:
I'm surprised that anyone who likes rock is into hifi...it's like a foodie shopping at Asda

(stands back...)

Ooh, why oy'll...prpfffft. I hope your tongue was firmly in your cheek young man!

Luckily i dont listen to that much heavier stuff, but what i do like i really enjoy, and i hope to have a system that grabs sepultura by the short n curlies a little harder in future.

God, i hope they dont see that and take it as some kinda threat!

 

[matengawhat]

this is also the only area im not entirely happy with - my system sound great with most things but some slighty heavier stuff just sounds a little thin with instruments although vocals are loud and clear - prob not best example but was listening to Ash's 1977 and just had to turn it off as was just horrible and bright

 

[drummerman]

Jan Hibma:Hi all,

I love my system, on certain recordings. It sounds great with accoustic stuff, great with vocals and pretty darn decent with classical too. Dance music isn't too shabby either.

It however sounds far less with rock music, whenever I listen to The Strokes, Fall Out Boy or even Tacking Back Sunday for example it just sounds like all life has been sucked out of it, and guitars become quite screechy.

No one system will do everything equally well, that's just common sense. Yours does 3 out of four, not bad. Short of changing equipment, which in your case is pointless if you like what you have, experiment with a good sub if you haven't done so already. It can add body to mid's, bring treble into line, improve drive and weight

 

[Anonymous]

Hadn't seen your reply yet, sorry Drummerman. I've never thought about a subwoofer, can it improve the sucked out mids? And if so, how could I best integrate it with my speakers? I believe my amplifier has a pre-out.

 

[drummerman]

Some experiences I've had lately made me slowly come round to accept the usefulness of subs. I'm not sure if it will fill in 'sucked out mids' but it certainly can add coherence, perceived clarity and body to the sound if done right. Pre-outs are fine.

 

[Anonymous]

Joelsim suggests that Rock and HiFi dont go together....what are we supposed to listen to it on....a potatoe.

I have had many systems over the past 30 years and only play Metal and Rock.

True it's no point spending thousands on hifi to play Rock as we seem to be the forgotten ones.

I love the system I have now (listening to Whitesnake now) and it sounds great.

Tried others but this was the best combo.

Good luck

 

[Anonymous]

Roksan kit does rock well IMO...

 

[Anonymous]

Jan, I can relate to you since I have also Marantz based electronics. Since I rarely listen to rock nowadays to my hifi I am ok and I am very very satisfied with it its performance...it can play nicely my favorite type of music which is vocals and jazz. I beleive my speakers contribute to great vocals as well (thanks to Mr John Duncan and others for recommending Neutron IV

). I have ipod for rock and fast music which I can turn the volume high if I want to. As others say no system is perfect 🙂

For subwoofer, although I dont have the fastest sub in the world I can say it helps to add weight and body especially when listening at high volumes. I heard Tannoy TS8 sub and I can say they are faster and tighter than mine.

 

[JoelSim]

My view is that rock is too grungy for decent hifi, my stuff shows up too many issues with rock

ÿ

 

[basshead]

this disscussion has really confused me....

the vast majourity of people in this country listen to rock music, surely a system that can not play the most common form of music is simply no good?

 

[Anonymous]

Clearly the speakers does not have enough attack and is not dynamic enough, it sounds very much like my old (admittedly different price range) Acoustic Energy Evo 1's, terrific with slower music, a nice soundstage, very open vocals but they sucked all the life out of heavy rock songs and rap for that matter.

 

[chebby]

basshead: the vast majourity of people in this country listen to rock music, surely a system that can not play the most common form of music is simply no good?

Eh?

Where does the evidence for that come from? I would be interested to know.

RAJAR show 13.4 million per day listen to BBC radio 2 (middle of the road mixture of most music types) and over 9.8 million per day listen to Radio 4.(speech, drama , documentary, comedy etc) Almost 2 million listen to Radio 3 (classical) and 10.5 million listen to Radio 1.

5.7 millions per day listen to Classic FM (classical) and 6 million listen to BBC 5 live. (speech, sports etc)

That would indicate that (as far as radio is concerned) 'Rock' listeners are in a minority albeit a significant one.

Obviously many of these people listen to a mixture of stations, but it still does not support the idea that "the vast majority" listen to Rock

 

[idc]

Jan Hibma: the recording quality of the albums is crud

You have at least partly answered your own question. The recording of a lot of rock music is not always up to the standard of other genres, for example the time taken to create the right accoustics for classical music. I suspect that rock is harder to record than other genres, especially simpler sounds such as accoustic. My ears tell me rock sounds better with more base, so my ipod and Bose beats my Arcam, Rega, B&W setup. Though I prefer all music with the ipod EQ set for jazz.