Distortion at Moderate Volumes – Room, Gear, or Just Me?

[kolestonin]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently running a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 500 7G tower speakers in a 2.0 setup, and I'm puzzled by something I hope you can help me with.

My Chain:

• Topping E30 DAC
• Topping Pre90 preamp
• Boxem Arthur 3409/N2 (nc252mp-based power amp)
• Source: Tidal (exclusive mode) on Windows 11, connected via Ethernet

The Issue:

At listening levels below 70dB, the speakers sound stunning—better than anything I’ve ever owned or heard. The tonality of these speakers keeps impressing me every time I listen.

However, when I raise the volume above 70dB, the sound quality degrades. It becomes harsh and somehow unpleasant. It's more like bass, mids, and highs sound separately bad each one on it's own, and not so that they stop blending well. The sound just doesn’t feel right anymore.

Given that my amp(specs attached) should have plenty of power to drive these speakers(specs attached) cleanly at much higher volumes, I’m trying to figure out what’s going on.

Possible Causes I’m Considering:

1. Room acoustics / reflections:
My room is about 30 square meters, and while not acoustically treated, it is thoughtfully furnished with curtains, carpets, books, paintings etc. I wonder if the larger drivers of the Silver 500s are exciting the room more than previous setups though.
In the same room and with the same chain, I used bookshelf speakers (Elac Debut Reference DBR62, KEF R3 Meta) combined with subs, and I never noticed this issue. Could the towers be too much for the room, or are they simply reacting differently in terms of reflections?

2. Psychoacoustics / fatigue:
As we all know, mood, health, and fatigue can affect how we perceive music. Without going into medical detail, I do have reasons to believe my sensitivity not only varies day to day but is also very high in this regard.
Some days, the issue is more noticeable—or even absent altogether.
Also, recording quality plays a role. With well-recorded tracks, it’s harder to detect any problem, which makes me wonder even more: maybe the issue isn’t with the speakers or room, but rather in how I’m perceiving it.

What could be causing this drop in sound quality at higher volumes?

• Is it room interaction?
• Listener fatigue or sensory overload?
• Something in my gear chain I might be overlooking?

I’ve always listened at moderate levels (60–70dB), so maybe I’m just not used to louder playback, but it really feels like there’s more going on.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas!

 

[Old_School_Brad]

1. What’s your listening distance?
2. Is the 70 dB you mentioned an average dBA level?
3. Have you applied any EQ?
4. Can you name one music track where you notice the distortion?

 

[Philbo King]

Speakers (or hearing) are the most likely suspects.

 

[kolestonin]

1. What’s your listening distance?
2. Is the 70 dB you mentioned an average dBA level?
3. Have you applied any EQ?
4. Can you name one music track where you notice the distortion?

1. 2,80m
2. Average, but not accurate as measured with an app on my phone and just to give a rough idea for what sound levels we are talking about
3. No
4. Grace Jones - She's lost control

 

[kolestonin]

I thought about contacting Monitor Audio support asking for some advice.
When I visited the website I came across my speakers manual(which I have also read before).

On the manual I found below part:

Retention Bolt Adjustment

The new Silver Series has a bolt-through driver fixing to reduce cabinet colouration. Each bolt acts as a rigid brace, but also removes the need for conventional driver fixings as well, effectively decoupling the driver and front baffle to eliminate a further source of resonance.

NOTE: Should this bolt become loose over time, or has worked loose during transit, then please use the supplied hex key to tighten the bolt back up. This only needs to be a quarter turn after the strain has been taken by the bolt.

I checked the bolts and found 8 out of 8(4 on each speaker) were loose.
I tighten to finger pressure and then turned a quarter as per manual advise.

To my surprise that little intervention seems to have fixed the problem.
Most probably drivers were not properly held in place and maybe started slightly vibrating as the volume was going up, giving me this strange unpleasant distorted effect.
That could also explain why I couldn't hear anything strange when I firstly bought the speakers 5 months ago.

I can't hear the problem anymore, but even though above explanation sounds logical, if I need to be sincere my best bet would be again my mind and a placebo effect. Psycho acoustics is my biggest suffering in this hobby

The important thing of course is I am again happy(till my next obsessive adventure)

 

[Greenman]

What are your actual room dimensions?

70dB is pretty quiet IMO, such that the room response is likely not an issue. However jump to say 85dB and the room becomes much more significant. It could be an issue with your amp or speakers (something having failed) or it could just be you aren’t used to listening at a level where the room comes alive. To me I find my system really starts to sing around 85dB, this being the volume that drums and bass start being felt as well as heard and the sounds appears more dynamic. So maybe you have some room mode that gets excited and causes the sound to fall apart…maybe get a mic and some (free) software and record a room response? It should at least highlight if your room is a big problem or not.

Edit - sorry didn’t read your above post properly. Hopefully this was the cause, we all like a free solution

 

[OldHvyMec]

I have repaired MANY speakers. Out of 250-275 pairs, well over 1/2 of the drivers were loose. Tightening the drivers repaired 90% of the problems, BUT there was occasion on about 10% of those that were tightened, that the gasket was blown or there were further air leaks.

You can make sure by using a stethoscope or just a 1/4 - 1/2 vacuum/fuel hose 24" long. One end to your ear and slowly put the other end to check the driver-to-cabinet.
Check anywhere air can leak, including speaker terminals and other drivers. Sometimes the drivers are a sealed unit so the mids/high aren't separated within the cabinet.

SO

Check, all the driver-to-cabinet mating surfaces for leaks.

BTW every 1-2 years it's never a bad idea to rotate any coned driver 180 degrees. Most drivers allow this other than names being upside down that are printed on some dust caps or cones.

Regards