Power Metal, Symphonic Metal, Heavy Metal, Glam and Hard Rock Hi-Fi

[Glacialpath]

Hi everyone. Some of you may have seen my Deathmetal Hi-Fi thread. I don't just listen to extream metal, I love all sorts.

So as with the other thread I thought I would start one up for some of the Metal sub genres.

Disclaimer:

I am not aphiliated with any of the brands or even bands I mention. This is all purely my own opinion and it's for you guys to make up your own mind.

My name is Trevor also known as Glacialpath/The Cable Madman[/b]. I have a page on FB if you wish to view it. I'm a musician. I play drums and guitar mainly but I can play almost anything if I get the chance. I generally love anything audio related and always want the best quality possible. I know my Hi-Fi is no way near as good as a lot of the guys on here have so I'm always looking to improve when money permits. I mostly listen to heavy music and have wondered how to get the most clarity from the albums I listen to. Cables[/b] have made the biggest difference in my set up allowing me to hear actual guitar tones, better definition from complex riffs, the full tone of different cymbals and drums (when they haven't been triggered or had drum replacement done) and clear refined bass lines and tone where as before all the instruments sounded like a distorted mess.

So if you like any of the music styles listed in the title then I'd love to have your thoughts and inputs about the things you can and can not hear on your systems. The genres listed are a lose description of some of the music I will be talking about.

Hope you enjoy the thread. Feel free to recomend any music for me to try out on my set up. If I don't have it on CD I will have to try it from Spotify and on my Home Theater system that has Bi-Amped Fronts and my Rel Q50 connected via the High Pass.

Cheers.

The Cable Madman (Glacialpath)

 

[AEJim]

There's a lot of badly recorded/compressed rock and metal music out there but there's some really good stuff too - I often use Rage Against the Machine when testing (some of our production staff used to be road crew for them and Metallica!) and I've heard Pantera sound great on a shop system.

If it's recorded and mastered well you should naturally hear all the nuances and tones in any reasonable system. The best test for really good speakers for me is quality of tone on instruments like guitars in rock and how silent the silent moments are when music stops suddenly (control of cabinet resonances is crucial for that), it's really noticeable on a top notch system.

 

[Glacialpath]

Hi there AEJim How are you? Good to hear from you.

Yeah I am building up quite a few disc's tracks (that I need to make a list of) that I use for reference material.

I really feel that no system has been put through it's paces till a "overly compressed" album has been put through it.

I have also found that some of the albums I thought to be over cooked are not so now I have the current lot of cables on (yes I believe in cables and I won't deissuaded lol) Alter Bridge's first and second album's are good examples. With the current cables they have allowed the system to really reveal more from these 2 CDs. The drum sound has been the biggest headache for me and now they sound more life like.

Anyway lets see how well this thread does.

 

[bigfish786]

whenever i buy new equipment, cables, etc the first disc i grab is by Prong, called Beg to Differ. its really well produced, loads of seperation, and a full dynamic range (and some cow bell)

this was the first album i re-ordered on vinyl for when i finally buy a new turntable.

i'm slowly buying the whole Prong back-catalogue on vinyl, they are one of my favourite bands, they make interesting music, some of which can rub you the wrong way, then all of a sudden becomes your favourite tracks.

Cleansing is a great album too.

 

[Glacialpath]

Hey Bigfish786 thanks for posting.

I've never been a fan of Prong. I did see them once at Download (will always be Monsters of Rock to me) but still didn't like what I heard.

I checked out Beg to Differ and actually it's pretty good. Only on my HT as I can currently only put CDs on my Hi-Fi. I like that kind of 90s mix. I might end up buying the CD at some point. Cleansing sounds good too. Nice mix again.

 

[Glacialpath]

Ok. So I'm trying to work out what combination of Hi-Fi seperates/cables extrac the most out of the CDs we listen to (and for you Vinyl guys too)

As some of you know and have already said a lot of the albums we listen to sound over compressed which makes them sound really flat and have basically no dynamic range.

What I have found so far while upgrading some of my Hi-Fi seperates and cables is that some of these albums are not as compressed as I first thought and it's out set ups that are not able to get the info through our speakers very well.

The biggest difference I first got was upgrading the Cambridge Audio A1 amp I had to the older Camb-Audio C500 control amp and P500 power amp. Of course any other amp more powerful than the A1 would have made a similar kind of difference, giving the music more oomph and body and for me to be able to turn it up and not have it distort.

Then I got introducedd to Chord Company cables at the Bristol Sound & Vision show. After the demo they gave, the following year I bought a Chameleon intercconnect which was old stock so it was half price + show discount. I ordered a Prodac too with BNC connections either end. I then managed to get another Chameleon form a Seven Oaks that was closing down.

Adding both the Chameleons really started to open out the sound coming from the speaker, easily allowing me to hear backing vocals that I hadn't noticed before and the riffs were easier to understand. When the Prodac turned up this gave me the first reall WOW! allowing even more of the music to flow out of the speakers and some of that compressed sound and the fake sound it can give some instruments started to disappear.

Like I'm sure a lot of you guys are I'm very particular about how a mix sounds. I've not listened to some albums I own due to this. Now I can as these albums sound great.

There were still some CDs that had that fake sound about them, mainly on the drum side of things, but now I also know a lot of the guitar sound wasn't making it throgh to me. One Day Remains by Alter Bridge is one of the albums that suffered from this horrible drum sound and as much as I love Powertrippin' by The Almighty it too suffered from a pretty poor drum sound to my ears.

My wife managed to win a Chord Company Anthem Reference interconnet and when we pu it on the system those horrible drum sounds went away. This cable gave us the second big WOW!

On Aerosmith's Get a Grip the Bass line s now seem to jump out at us. I new the Bass was there but could never really hear what it was playing, the intricacies of both guitarists are also nice and clear where as before they just sounded like a load of riffs. Vocal harmonies are clean and very prominent. The whole album sound completely new to us. This goes for Done with Mirrors, Permanent Vacation, Pump and so on.

Reckless and Cuts like a Knife by Bryan Adams used to sound really muddy against Waking up the Neighbours on any system I have played them on. This was less so when the Prodac and Chameleon interconnectes were put on the system but not to the point it does now with the Anthem Reference in place. The muddyness has gone the low end in the mix has tightened up. For the first time ever I can hear the kind of guitar tone Bryan and is fellow guitar player use on each song. Before they just sounded like distorted guitars as any other bands/artists album.

Even the what I describe as white sound (not white noise) on Waking Up the Neighbours where the drums sounded really polished and a lot like the sound on Def Leppards Hysteria album has mostly gone and they now sound a lot more like real drums. I was quite amazed.

The vocal harmonies on any of the Alice In Chains CDs really stand out. They did before of course as it's one of the signatures of the band but now they sound even better. I always felt Dirt sounded a but tinny but now that has gone too and it sounds Awesome. Jar of Fly's and Sap just make me melt with how sweet they sound, especially No Excuse and Whale & Wasp

Currently we are going through ouor CDs A-Z and we are up to C. So not very far but coming up we have Delain, Edenbridge, Evanesance, The Gathering, Imperia, Iron Maiden, Kamalot, Lacona Coil, Leaves Eyes and Linkin Park. Just to name a few. I also have a load of Thrashmetal, Deathmetal, Blackmetal and such to get through too but that's for the Deathmetal Hi-Fi thread.

What sort of things have you found when buying new bits of Hi-Fi gear and cables when listening to your collection again? Also what bit of gear/cables was it that made the biggest difference?

 

[Tear Drop]

A very big improvement - pound for pound unmatched I think - is modifying equipment. Pretty much every time I have posted this on a forum I get predictable responses about messing with equipment etc, so if this isn't for you then simply ignore. My commercially available kit has nearly all been modded to some degree - not by me, I know a professional who does this for me - including the upgrading of internal parts, rewiring, vibration control and so on. Let's take a recent example. I got a pair of old Castle floorstanders with a damaged drive unit for a few hundred quid. I spent more money on a complete internal rewire, upgrading the crossovers, and replacing the woofers. Total oulay just over £1000, but I now have a pair of speakers which in order to be outpeformed convincingly I would have to spend £3000+, given what I have listened to (quite a lot). The caveat with this route is that you must be competent or know somebody who is. I would never attempt any mods myself as I'm a bit cack-handed.

 

[Tear Drop]

Metal tunes I will often go to when listening for system improvements/differences include anything from Suffocation 'Pierced From Within', Death 'The Sound Of Perseverance', specifically 'Spirit Crusher', Nile's 'In Their Darkened Shrines', specifically 'Unas Slayer Of The Gods' and something from my youth, Metallica's 'Blackened'. This last one is particularly interesting to me, as it was the first metal song I ever listened to. It has been mentioned on another thread that '...And Justice For All' suffers from poor sound quality. I would mostly agree. First time I listened to this on tape when I was about 12 it sounded like it was being played down a telephone line. A couple of decades later I finally managed to get a superlative vinyl pressing and it floored me with how much energy and body this track has, the kick drums wallop me in the chest, Hetfield spits out the lyrics with venomous intent, Newsted's bass line is finally audible, articulate and deep, and the guitars roar. Wonderful stuff.

 

[Glacialpath]

Hello mate.

I don't dissagre with the modifications and your mate clearly knows what he is doing. I guess if you wanted to sell any of it on though you would have to specify that they've been upgraded and that maybe you would have to let a potential buyer have a listen incase they have heard any of the kit before. That way they can see if they feel the mods are an improvment.

I Only own 2 Metallica albums. The self titled one and St Anger. I'm interested to see if the Drums sound any better with the new cable but I'm not holding my hopes up lol.

Yes it annoyed me slightly that partly due to our ignarence and lack of Hi-Fi knowledge when we were younger and also the lack of money to buy decent kit meant we go into music with it sounding nothing like it actually does. My first Hi-Fi was and Alba. It was ok but compared to my current set up it was like listening to a kids sound system.

I will be borrowing the other Metallica albums to try on my system and maybe I might grow to like them. Dyers Eve and One are pretty awsome songs. I felt Kill Em All was just an Iron Maiden ripp off. Of course I got into Metal through Iron Maiden so you can see my dislike for the four horsemen. and Lars lol.

 

[peterpan]

Isn't the Van den Hul cs 122 good for metal? Because many bad records are too bright and doesn't this cable compensate it?

 

[MrReaper182]

Hello mate.

I don't dissagre with the modifications and your mate clearly knows what he is doing. I guess if you wanted to sell any of it on though you would have to specify that they've been upgraded and that maybe you would have to let a potential buyer have a listen incase they have heard any of the kit before. That way they can see if they feel the mods are an improvment.

I Only own 2 Metallica albums. The self titled one and St Anger. I'm interested to see if the Drums sound any better with the new cable but I'm not holding my hopes up lol.

Yes it annoyed me slightly that partly due to our ignarence and lack of Hi-Fi knowledge when we were younger and also the lack of money to buy decent kit meant we go into music with it sounding nothing like it actually does. My first Hi-Fi was and Alba. It was ok but compared to my current set up it was like listening to a kids sound system.

I will be borrowing the other Metallica albums to try on my system and maybe I might grow to like them. Dyers Eve and One are pretty awsome songs. I felt Kill Em All was just an Iron Maiden ripp off. Of course I got into Metal through Iron Maiden so you can see my dislike for the four horsemen. and Lars lol.

I too never got into Matallica or thrash metal. I never understand why Matallica became the biggest metal band on the planet or why there is so much love for the album Master of Puppets, which is an average album in my view. The Sweedish, Finnish and Norwegian metal sences have come up with much better bands than Matallica. Bands like Opeth, Children Of The Boom, Nightwish, Sentenced, At the Gates, In Flames, Scar Symmetry, Emperor Enslaved and lots more. Melodic death metal, symphonic metal, power metal, gothic metal, industrial metal, nu metal, doom metal and old school heavy metal will always sound better to my ears than thrash metal ever will. Slayer only ever sounded good when they slowed the guitar riffs down.

 

[peterpan]

Never heard of the loudness war?

http://dr.loudness-war.info/

But maybe this amp is the solution with his icc chip:

http://lyngdorf.com/products/amplifiers/tdai-2170/product

 

[lindsayt]

Glacialpath, if you ever get the chance, try to listen to a few of your favourite albums on high end, huge, almost PA like speakers. At generous volumes. I think you'd enjoy it. A lot.

I like the more tuneful brands of metal music, like Nirvana and Aerosmith. And stuff like Led Zep, AC/DC, Bachman Turner Overdrive. And then there's stuff like Kinks live c1983, which sounds pretty punkish / metallic to me.

 

[Glacialpath]

Glacialpath, if you ever get the chance, try to listen to a few of your favourite albums on high end, huge, almost PA like speakers. At generous volumes. I think you'd enjoy it. A lot.

You mean like a set of these http://www.pmc-speakers.com/products/professional/passive/bb5

I heard some of these speakers at the Bristol Sound and Vision Show a couple of years ago. They just blew me away. I would love to get a chance to hear some of the music I listen to on them.

 

[Glacialpath]

My wife and I listened to Cher and Cinderella of the Hi-Fi over the weekend. We have 3 Cher albums. Cher, Heart Of Stone and Love hurts. the first 2 sounded so much better than beofre. Backing vocals and guitar licks previously lost in the mix were jumping out all over the place. They sounded great.

Love Hurts has always sounded good. I've particularly like the drum sound on some of the songs. I found the kick drums sounded nice and punchy but a bit clicky. Now they sound nice and punchy but without the clickyness. The guitar tones really come through, the amount of backing vocals has gone up and in some cases appeared for the first time. bass line thump along as if they ar in charge and Cher's voice sound pretty awesome.

We have 3 Cinderella albums too. Night Songs, Long Cold Winter and Heartbreak Station. Both Night Songs and Heartbreak Station have always sounded a bit what I call white sounding, a little tinny and washy. With all the reverb on the drums to make them sound like that polished huge stadium sound they used to clutter the mix. You couldn't hear guitar tones as such, No reverb on the vocals, and barely a clear bass line unless you listened on headphones.

Now Long Cold winter is free of all that clutter. Of course the reverb is still on the drums but they sound more like drums in a big room and less like they are being played through a waterfall. The guitar tones are sweet, there were some lovely harmonies I had never heard before even the odd cowbell that had excaped my ears on previouse listens. The vocals sound rich with some nice reverb on them that gives them space to breath. The bass lines is nice and clear. I did notice the Hi-Hats and ride cymbals were not recorded very well as they are pretty quiet, clearer than they were before but non the less quiet.

Night songs does sound more naturl but hasn't quite lost all it's white, tinny washyness. I may never be that clean but I think ther is more to come from that CD. Strange the new cable has helped clean the sound from one CD and not the other.

Heartbreak Station sonded superb. Very clean and a nice solid mix.

If you guys own any of these albums I would love to hear what you feel they sound like on your systems?