QuestForThe13thNote said:
Leif said:
While listening to my home hifi system, I noticed that placing my hands behind my ears thereby increasing the sound collecting area significantly improved the sound quality. Doubtless this is because I was eliminating the reflections from the wall behind me. The result was a very taught bass, mid range and treble. The result was on a par with the sound from headphones, in fact somewhat better due to the improved sound stage etc. Okay,now I could make some bunny ears to wear, but I'd rather have something of audiophile quality. So what do people recommend? I would rather have ones that reduce jitter, and which are impedance matched to the hifi. Preferably very expensive so they are really good.
Incidentally, there is actually a serious point to this question. The improvement in sound quality was very real, due to ameliorating poor room acoustics. So, what practical and reasonable ways are there of improving the room acoustics as effectively as 'bunny ears'? No doubt I am not the only one who has poor room acoustics, I bet most of us do.
can you post a picture of your room so we can see what it looks like. I really don't think it's your room. If you have it set up reasonably and most people's rooms are a compromise, but this doesn't normally stop good sounding speakers sound good. I heard some systems in Bristol sound great in a tiny hotel room and it's not as if your speakers are huge bass monsters (I'm not criticising them as I've owned similar as you know), just they are relatively small speakers.
As ive said to you before, the easiest way is to use a leaner amplifier with punchier bass, so that you take out any possible bass reflections that your amp 'may' be giving and tighten things up. Arcam is typically a rich bass sound. So are pmc, so it could be too much comparative to another system. How are you mounting the pmc twenty 21s (are they on pmc stands) and what speaker cables are you using? Where are your pmc's in the room. Have you tried cheap bass lighter cables?
Please enlighten us with pics and info so we can try and sort this for you, once and for all. I am genuinely trying to help you.
I was wondering whether or not to reply to your trolling, and decided I would.
Firstly, you say that "Arcam is typically a rich bass sound". I have absolutely no idea what that means. The term 'rich' is so vague as to me meaningless. Measurements of the previous version of the Arcam Solo music which came out ten years ago show that it has a very uniform frequency response:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/arcam-solo-cd-receiver-measurements
One might expect the latest versions to be improved.
You say "what speaker cables are you using?". I am using good ones. I'm not humouring your speaker cable nonsense, you've been given goodness how many links that disprove that guff.
You say "the easiest way is to use a leaner amplifier with punchier bass". Here we go again, back onto your obsession, that my amplifier (which I have recently bought) is mediocre, and I should buy one you prefer. You used to regularly suggest the Cyrus One or Quad Vena.
"I am genuinely trying to help you. "
No you're not. You are continuing the same old monomaniacal obsession, namely that you hate the system I have bought - because it does not appeal to your snobbery - and you are going all out to tell me that it is mediocre. And to make matters worse, you have not even heard my system. So quite how you can continually makre derogatory remarks about it is beyond me. I came to the conclusion from your posts on the HiFiWigwam web site that you a rather unpleasant person. Incidentally, you attacked people here and on HFW as being equipment snobs and old bores. I posted questions on HFW and got lots of help from all but one person. That exception was you. The others were helpful, and did not look down on me even though my equipment is modest compared to theirs. The exception was you.
Anyway, back to my original post. It was somewhat tongue in cheek, but it had a serious point. All rooms have acoustics, and it is well known that some concert halls are better than others. A sitting room is no different. In my case I get some resonances, which are nothing to do with the amplifier, although some fools think they are. A resonance is a standing wave, it can occur when there are two parallel walls whose separation matches a multiple of the wavelength of a sound from a music system. With my current speakers, PMC twenty.21, the resonances are minor and I can live with them. For example, if I place my chair back against the wall, some bass notes are exaggerated. If I move forward a bit, they calm down. Otherwise the PMC speakers provide a very tight sound.
The PMC speakers are a recnt purchase and when looking for new speakers, I listened to several models in a shop's demo room. In one demo room there were acoustic tiles on the walls. In all cases the sofa was well away from the walls. And usually the speakers were also placed well away from the walls. That is why I did not discover the issue with Monitor Audio Silver 1 speakers when I demoed them. The resonances from these speakers when placed in my room were awful. I had to place them almost in the middle of the room, as they are rear ported, and placing them less than 1m from a wall caused awful sound. The bass was also not very tight. It surprises me that 'audiophiles' spend so much time talking about very expensive amplifiers, and even cables, but rarely mention room acoustics. Then again, for some 'audiophiles' it does seem to be all about the equipment and not the music.