Home General Asylum

General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

Re: A question wtih possibly no answer re: system dynamics

As others have said, everything can affect dynamics, but here's a slightly different take which may help, depending on what you're doing at present:

I was helping to move a system to a different room at the home of a famous mastering engineer a couple of weekends ago. The components are all world-class, but we found that there was a HUGE increase in both micro- and macrodynamics depending upon the way the electronic components were supported (squishy feet on racks vs. roller bearings on racks vs. spiking the amps directly through the carpet into the concrete slab, etc.). It was amazing how just removing some bearing-like devices from underneath the amps caused the system to come alive after having sounded very flat. The mastering engineer remarked that he had heard a particular track thousands of times and this was now the closest he had ever heard to the master tape--and that was after the system had been lifeless and underwhelming a couple of hours earlier (yes, it had already been warmed up, broken in, etc.).

Many of us have gone through stages where we have piled tweaks on top of tweaks on top of tweaks, and I have often found that removing some of those devices and going to a fairly minimalist system actually causes the sound to become more pure and open and alive. It can even be the case that certain expensive cables, including power cables, are designed almost as tone controls to tame the overly bright and thin "hi-fi" which is so common nowadays, and substituting simpler cables, sometimes even the old Beldens, can actually cause the sound to feel more dynamic. (I understand, of course, that removing noise--which some expensive power cables are designed to do--and removing the system's life are two different things, but you'd be surprised how much the boundaries between these two are crossed.)

The above may not apply to you, but it has worked for me as a general rule and might help.

Best,
mjv



This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Herbie's Audio Lab  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
  • Re: A question wtih possibly no answer re: system dynamics - mjv 13:11:50 05/10/06 (0)


You can not post to an archived thread.