In the process of setting up in new room, so music hasn't been nearly as enjoyable. I have the chance to arrange the room around the system, though, so I expect to be able to put it together in a way that the system and room disappear, get great imaging/depth/envelopment, and that allows me to follow individual instruments more easily. I can already follow bass lines much more easily than before and I've barely gotten started.
I definitely need to fill in the sub-bass with my subwoofer, so I'm looking forward to getting that hooked up. I can also tell I need to damp side reflections in the room slightly because the direct/reflect ratio is a bit too low as far as I can tell, causing more of a wash than a soundstage.
I can also get the surrounds in proper position in this room, unlike the last. Preliminary tests give a very exciting outlook.
My variety of music this week is the usual - Soundgarden, KoRn, Gojira, etc., all mixed in with more simplistic recordings like jazz.
Well Andre, sounds like quite a project. I hope it works out as planned.
What is simplistic about jazz? In my experience jazz has always been the most intricate genre of music and the most difficult to play by all accounts from musicians I've spoken to.
Speaking of jazz I went to San Antonio last night and caught part of the annual jazz fest at Crockett Park, (not to be confused with JazzSAlive which takes place at Travis Park in September). It was great! There was a Latin Jazz band playing when I arrived. Then, a band from Houston was up. They were amazing!
Aha. I reside in Houston right now, actually. I'm not sure if I mentioned that, considering that you did.
I should've phrased my previous post more precisely. I understand that jazz is the most intricate (hence the phrase "if you can play jazz, you can play anything"). I meant that highly produced music such as metal (specifically the Disturbed album Believe) seems to give me a lot more trouble in setup to sound correct (the qualities I outlined in previous post).
Anyway my music tonight consists of various Tool tracks, a few Chesky-recorded tracks, random radio listening (nowai!), and other tracks I use specifically to check system attributes.
I had the subwoofer parts in storage today. I still hadn't painted the main body black and it was a good opportunity, so I spent the day painting it and wiring a new circuit (this is an old house and none of the outlets had a ground; the service box on the outside wall is a foot from where I plug the system in, which made it really easy to put in a dedicated 20-amp receptacle). The body is so large that I had to take the doors off the hinges just to get it through.
Tomorrow I should be able to put in the drapes and hook up the subwoofer to scope out the LF response of this room. Fun...
The 2nd jazz band I saw, the one from Houston was led by saxophonist Dean James.
Not to be contrary, but it seems that the production quality depends much more on the year a recording was made and if the equipment used was top notch and the ability of the person(s) using said equipment than the genre of music. For example, I have jazz albums dating back to 1917, Rock back to '55, metal back to '70 and R&B from the '60s just to name a few. I also have recent recordings in all of the affore mentioned genres. Recordings made prior to the late '40s are seriously lacking. Those made from '49 to the early 90s vary greatly depending largely on the budget of the band. The Metallica album, "Master of Puppets" was marginal at best. Mortification's 2nd self titled album is down right muddy and everything outside midrange is all but impossible to hear. Metallica's 90s albums and "Death Magnetic", Mortification's 3rd album, "Scrolls of the Megaloth" and following albums and Ozzy Osbourne Albums from "Osmosis" on are very well produced as are the Mike Stern album, "Who Let the Cats Out?" and many modern recordings in all genres. A modern jazz album with an upright bass can be very useful in tuning a sub.
If you can get a hold of a good recording of pipe organ music, it's an excellent way to tune your sub. If not, the Vanessa Williams song, "Save the Best for Last" has a heavy bass line coming off the keyboard that'll work nicely. Other good test music includes Al Jarrue, "Accentuate the Positive" and Metallica's "black album" because it has the unique quality of punchy bass drum, but not going especially deep. This can expose errors rather quickly. Personally, I use samples from a number of recordings for this purpose. One thing I do is listen to Amy Grant's version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". It starts out a cappella, making it the only recording I have of a female voice isolated. If she sounds like a man, it's crossed to high. If she sounds like a mouse, it's crossed too low. If she sounds like herself, it's just right. As the song progresses, instruments are gradually added and the bass drum is rather punchy.
No music today except for the laptop. I have everything out of the way to hang the drapes.
In this room, the high freqs are giving me trouble (hence Believe from Disturbed). I am good at integrating subs, just not an expert with speaker calibration. I do have my pipe organ CD and DVD, and have lots of great tracks for testing diff qualities of the bass.
While I am still mostly listening to Art's music, I have picked up a few new pop cds. New Bonnie Raitt: http://www.allmusic.com/album/slipstream-mw0002295186 New Paul Simon.
Kenny Barron- Canta Brazil This is a great album reminiscent of those 70s CTI albums. It has many instruments and beautiful flute which reminds me of the old Hubert Laws. No string arrangements though. http://www.allmusic.com/album/canta-brasil-mw0000227901
After some experimentation with positioning, I've managed to get a great stereo image. I found that the surround envelopment is great too when testing with scenes from The Matrix and Inception.
I have tried the subwoofer in several configurations, but so far it sounds the best to set the speakers to full-range and then low-pass the sub at 50hz. I hooked in the EQ to cut a 40-50hz broad peak and infrasonics below the unload point. I also sharply cut the sub signal above 70hz because my testing shows I begin to localize above that (testing with L/R on main speakers). I turn the sub off at night (for now) because it transfers through the floor (planning to fix that) and the fan noise (also planning to fix...) is too much for night levels.
Ahem... not listening to anything unusual for me tonight, same stuff I've listened to for years...
Anyway after a few days I found it to be obvious the channels don't have matching frequency response and everything pulls to the right. I did a test correction in an audio editor and suddenly the imaging locked into place. Some things even sound 3D.
Well Andre, I get busy sometimes and I'd imagine most folks in here do. I am enjoying reading your posts as your system and room situation come together
I really want to be able to sit/lie down and actually enjoy something rather than be bothered by the imposed presence of the speakers .
If you can't tell already, it's frustrating me. I was walking around with music playing and noticed that nearfield is currently far better than farfield. I moved my listening position up to 4 feet from 6.5. This is as close I can get before I run into driver coherence issues. The monitors I use for surrounds allow as close as one foot, so I might try that if I get proper stands for them. I know this can degrade beyond-speaker imaging and such, but I'm going to roll with it for a while as a test. It might even be beneficial to use the surrounds in the FARfield (10 feet).
Music selections... More jazz, brass, some electronic stuff. Meshuggah.
I've been trying to follow the very reasonable advice to 'listen to more live music'. Well, got to DelMar Fair on Thursday in time for CCR. Yep, Creedence Clearwater Resuscitation is still touring and for all that, not bad at all. They hit ALL the crowd faves, playing about 2lps worth of 'Hey, I KNOW that tune!' Unfortunately, I didn't buy tickets and therefore was stuck upstairs in the nosebleed seats. From where I sat, which at least was dead center of the setup, the mix was real mid/ bass heavy with few high tones. The drumset was mic'ed fine and the vocals were good. I just think they missed the highs. The drummer is 67years and has some major guns. Another of the original players is there but the other guys? Great talents. Thumbs up.
This is an example of a distorted track that I still enjoy listening to (the distortion is intentional, artistic effect). I have the Wav of this track.
Good one Art, you stumped me that time. I had to google Iversen. Interesting. Amongst other music, I have been playing all 4 Esparanza cds. I finally got her 1st one, Junjo which is also very good.
Moved back to original room. I had to leave my setup at the other house. That room must have had terrible acoustics because I dug my old AVR out of dormancy and these old Model 100 Bose speakers - much better listening experience, very nice.
Tool's The Grudge is . I think it's the room because when I talk to other people in this house, their voice sounds very clear and open. Weird.
I lost output below 60hz, but no point in having it if everything else is eh.
Nothing unusual about listening choices today, sorry.
Oldies on the radio tonight. Depending on your age that may vary on selections.
For me that's 60's-70's. My first boss drilled that music into my head while I worked as a carpenter's apprentice for almost 8 years back in the 80's. For some today that means Madonna and Michael Jackson tracks.
Unbelievably some today haven't heard of Stone Temple Pilots or REM.
I need to crawl back underneath my blanket of middle age, before I grow out of it!