GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: Listening rooms and composers.

Post Subject: Is This Something You'd Like to Change?Posted by Paul S on: 5/31/2010

Gould was such a great talker! I love listening to him on just about any subject. But don't let this stop you from digging into it, if you want to "fix" it.

LBJ, there are bound to be periods when, and plenty of varying reasons why, one just is not up for big music; but I, for one, would hate to lose that option. And it may well be that there are adjustments you can make to get your present system, or most of it, in better sync with the room, and there are a few things you can do, if you are up for it, to begin to determine what's going on with you and the Bruckner. To begin with, setting aside purely personal issues, I would assume it is some disfunction of an element or elements in the "system", which includes components, sources, power source, room and listening position. With this simple assumption, we leave the realm of the arcane and the obtuse and we can begin to deal systematically with rote problems. Simple? Tres. Also, powerful. Once there is a willingness on your part to suspend musical enjoyment for a while, along with the proper determination, the work can begin. Given that you have recordings of Bruckner, etc., that you liked before, it should not take long to make some findings.

I can't remember if you mentioned your room particulars, or if you've said anything about BEP and/or its remediation in your system. For one thing, right off the bat, I can tell you for certain that there are days here when BEP allows jazz and chamber works but not the big stuff; or, I can get Beethoven but not Bruckner. Anyway, electricity is a possibe factor in many of the problems I notice at any given time, which may be well to remember as you trouble shoot.

Apart from the "musical sources" and the electricity, there are only, broadly speaking, the potential of the components themselves, the simple ordering and positioning of components, particularly speakers, and yourself, within the room, and the rote tuning of the gain stages to yield what you are looking/listening for but not presently getting. It is a truism that it is easier to charge a smaller room, and as long as the room is "big enough", you should be able to use this to your advantage, even in this case.

If you are lucky, Romy will unfurl one of his very rigorous takes for you. In any case, I suspect that what this situation mostly wants is the willingness to forego Music long enough to really work at it. And you certainly have my sympathy in this!

FWIW, my own system was not designed for big works in the first place; but using the windfall ML2s I have tweaked what I have to the point where I can really wallow in big works when the electricity is good. Ironically, I had numerically more frequent "big music days" before I worked my last couple of rounds of "improvements". Now I have fewer (less frequent) days when I can enjoy the big works, but I get more out of them now when everything is right.

IMO, hi-fi mostly sucks. But I have to admit that expanding program options makes it suck a good deal less.

Following these unleavened words, I will put your thoughts in the oven and see what bakes up.

Best regards,
Paul S

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