Is anyone ever happy with their sound?

[umbucker]

I just wondered if anyone else suffered from the same problem as I do....I dont think I can sit through a full album or through an entire film without meesing round with sound settings at least twice ..Room eq....Tone...DSP settings, It drives my wife crazy and in a way drives me crazy too. I envy people who can set their equipment up onece to never touch it again, but as sound changes from album to album I find my self constantly changing these settings "theres too much in the surround speakers in this film"....."I better turn the sub woofer down for this album" I seem to constantly have it in my head I can make it sound better - I think If I speant 50K on hifi i would still not be happy!

Any more sufferers out there ??

 

[staggerlee]

nope, once i've set up everything, i tend to leave it alone.

 

[daveh75]

Stop listening to your kit, and start listening to the music/soundtrack....

 

[bigboss]

daveh75:Stop listening to your kit, and start listening to the music/soundtrack....

 

[umbucker]

I wish I could, and do on cheap hifi stuff, but through more expensive systems is where the problems lie... - I tend to do it in gigs as well - if the sound quality is poor I will not enjoy the gig. I would even go as far as to say I would perfer to see a 6 out of 10 band with superb sound quality than a 9 out of 10 band with poor sound

 

[Anonymous]

Whenever I need to buy new equipment, I take som time, first to find out what I really need, then to set things up in the best possible way. That usually means taking care of positioning, to avoid unwanted acoustic effects. If something sounds wrong, a few measurements and a little reasoning sorts it out.

Once set up, my gear is supposed to play music; not to be a hobby of it's own.

So much said, of course I'm less satisfied some days. But I'm aware that this depends on my personal well-being, and can't be fixed by buying new equipment...

 

[Anonymous]

umbucker:I wish I could, and do on cheap hifi stuff, but through more expensive systems is where the problems lie... - I tend to do it in gigs as well - if the sound quality is poor I will not enjoy the gig. I would even go as far as to say I would perfer to see a 6 out of 10 band with superb sound quality than a 9 out of 10 band with poor sound

Then your real interest is the equipment; not the music.

Fair enough -- but you miss a lot on the music side...

 

[The_Lhc]

Perhaps a dedicated stereo amp might help with the music but it sounds like you're having issues with the recording quality of some of your albums and, as you've found out, it tends to be cheaper kit that smooths those deficiencies out, better gear will highlight shortcomings in recordings quite ruthlessly.

 

[idc]

I am a terrible fiddler and am now very happy to have a setup with no tone controls or other settings to mess about with.

 

[simon3102000]

get yourself a hi-fi for listening to music on man, keep the av amp for movies. Set it up then let it rock!!!

 

[the record spot]

Very happy with my set-up here. Delighted in fact. Rarely change anything bar volume for evening listening when the kids are in bed.

 

[bretty]

Luckily, with my components, I stumbled across a combination that is perfect. Once I have my new TT up and running, i'm done. I won't be changing anything again.

 

[Alec]

Yes.

 

[DIB]

bretty:Luckily, with my components, I stumbled across a combination that is perfect. Once I have my new TT up and running, i'm done. I won't be changing anything again.

Oh yeah?

.

 

[plastic penguin]

umbucker:

I just wondered if anyone else suffered from the same problem as I do....I dont think I can sit through a full album or through an entire film without meesing round with sound settings at least twice ..Room eq....Tone...DSP settings, It drives my wife crazy and in a way drives me crazy too. I envy people who can set their equipment up onece to never touch it again, but as sound changes from album to album I find my self constantly changing these settings "theres too much in the surround speakers in this film"....."I better turn the sub woofer down for this album" I seem to constantly have it in my head I can make it sound better - I think If I speant 50K on hifi i would still not be happy!

Any more sufferers out there ??

I think there are two issues at work: Firstly, I used to get bored listening too often to the same styles of music. Now I switch from one format to another and one style to another - keeps it fresh.

Secondly, I know from personal experience, it's a case of over expectation of what your system CAN and CAN'T do - this very often used to give me itchy feet. So try and recognise the really good aspects of your set-up.... and the deficiencies. I certainly do.

 

[Craig M.]

Fahnsen:
Whenever I need to buy new equipment, I take som time, first to find out what I really need, then to set things up in the best possible way. That usually means taking care of positioning, to avoid unwanted acoustic effects. If something sounds wrong, a few measurements and a little reasoning sorts it out.

Once set up, my gear is supposed to play music; not to be a hobby of it's own.

So much said, of course I'm less satisfied some days. But I'm aware that this depends on my personal well-being, and can't be fixed by buying new equipment...

 

[Anonymous]

umbucker:
I just wondered if anyone else suffered from the same problem as I do....I dont think I can sit through a full album or through an entire film without meesing round with sound settings at least twice ..Room eq....Tone...DSP settings, It drives my wife crazy and in a way drives me crazy too. I envy people who can set their equipment up onece to never touch it again, but as sound changes from album to album I find my self constantly changing these settings "theres too much in the surround speakers in this film"....."I better turn the sub woofer down for this album" I seem to constantly have it in my head I can make it sound better - I think If I speant 50K on hifi i would still not be happy!

Any more sufferers out there ??

I suffered exactly from the same thing like you and i think it even get worst by the more i dig deep into those room accoustic problem and the more i know about them, then the more i want to tweak things to get my way around them. -i think even if u spent 100K on a hifi system u would still not be happy! as long as the room is untreated and u know what u listening for.

Infact one thing that i have learned -Never buy anything that is expensive unless u know that your room is up to it.

 

[wireman]

DIB:

bretty:Luckily, with my components, I stumbled across a combination that is perfect. Once I have my new TT up and running, i'm done. I won't be changing anything again.

Oh yeah?

Yeah... I'm with Bretty on that one. Even though my exposure amplifiers are knocking on ten years old now, I still don't hear anything at shows which sweeps me off my feet in quite the same way.

 

[Superaintit]

umbucker:
I just wondered if anyone else suffered from the same problem as I do....I dont think I can sit through a full album or through an entire film without meesing round with sound settings at least twice ..Room eq....Tone...DSP settings, It drives my wife crazy and in a way drives me crazy too. I envy people who can set their equipment up onece to never touch it again, but as sound changes from album to album I find my self constantly changing these settings "theres too much in the surround speakers in this film"....."I better turn the sub woofer down for this album" I seem to constantly have it in my head I can make it sound better - I think If I speant 50K on hifi i would still not be happy!

Any more sufferers out there ??

Well, to be honest with you, I had the same problem. When I first started with hifi I thought I wanted the most reveiling system that I could buy, but not any more. And here's why: at least 50% of the music I like to listen to -pop, rock- is not so well recorded. On a very reveiling system it shows, badly. After a while I decided I would rather have a system that's less 'honest' about what's on the recording and just plays the music the way I enjoy it most.

 

[vinod_david]

As of now ok, but an amp upgrade will seal it.

 

[Anonymous]

daveh75:Stop listening to your kit, and start listening to the music/soundtrack....

Ahem....."Sound" advice daveh

!!!