New system Vocal Distortion

[Frank2]

Thanks for pointing me to the review. It seems only measured so high at 96db. I don't listen that loud. I wonder if that is what I hear. I don't hear much about 11k these days. I noticed I'm very sensitive to sounds just at the top of my range.
Does the DBR62 have the same distortion?

It has been tested as well:

Elac Debut Reference DBR-62 Speaker Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Elac Debut Reference DBR-62 bookshelf speaker. It was kindly purchased new and drop shipped to me for testing. The DBR-62 costs US $600 a pair from multiple sources/dealers. The DBR-62 comes in black and walnut finish or the distressed Oak and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

No distortion peaks in the tweeter.

 

[Apesbrain]

Hear is what my system looks like. Pretty low rent. I know it needs work.

Unfortunately, it will be difficult to get consistent, good sound in that room: as you've noted, bare walls and floors reflect sound and all those plastic shelving units are a resonance nightmare. Your speaker placement is also sub-optimal. In this situation, I think REW will be of no additional benefit compared to using the WiiM EQ and setting it to your personal liking.

Putting an area rug down is an easy first step. Can you move the plastic shelving out of the room and place your speakers on stands? Alternatively, consider draping a heavy blanket over the plastic units.

Have you considered a good pair of wireless sealed headphones or earphones? E.g. Sennheiser, Sony.

 

[antcollinet]

Hear is what my system looks like. Pretty low rent. I know it needs work.

Im prepared to bet your problem is stuff in the plastic boxes resonating Your speaker is sat right on the top of them! I'v had similar just putting a pair of glasses on top of my speakers. It would sound like exactly what you are describing.

you need to get the speakers away from that storage. Even then you might still have problems.

 

[ozzy9832001]

Sounds like a resonance of some sort that's down into the vocal region that is easily excited. Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult to nail down because it may not always happen. You may be able to change your listening position to see if you can avoid the room interaction that is causing it. The window behind you could be a strong culprit as well. They typically resonate between 300hz-400hz. When glass resonates it has a very distinct, nasty sound quality to it.

 

[Multicore]

Vocals are often raspy. It sounds like a broken tweeter.

About half of my music sounds wonderful. But some recordings really have a lot of squeakiness in voices. I've heard this on other systems. It's just more noticeable now.

My first question is: Can we eliminate the possibility that your system is defective? The language you used seems severe, like a component is clipping or a driver is damaged or out of tolerance/spec or something is resonating.

 

[bobcat11]

I'm familiar with the Aphex Aural Exciter. It's still in widespread use. To my ear, if used judiciously, it imparts a pleasant "tube-like" distortion and what sounds like a little peak around 8kHz, a combo that can sound subjectively "clean." It isn't the kind of distortion I'm referring to, which is more like garden-variety, nasty grunginess.

I guess we are talking about 2 kinds of distortion One being general grungyness that I think the B62 brings out as it is kind of analytical. I could deal with that by bringing down 4 and 8khz a couple db.
The Aphex Aural Exciter. sound is what I think was also being accentuated at time by the B62. However, I do hear that unnatural high frequency vocal sound on headphones too. It's just much more noticible on the speakers.

I'm compiling a playlist of songs that hurt me.

 

[bobcat11]

The exciter came out in 1975 but it took a few years to get popular. So most of the music you listen to didn't use it.

Ok. So maybe not the exciter.

 

[bobcat11]

Sounds like a resonance of some sort that's down into the vocal region that is easily excited. Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult to nail down because it may not always happen. You may be able to change your listening position to see if you can avoid the room interaction that is causing it. The window behind you could be a strong culprit as well. They typically resonate between 300hz-400hz. When glass resonates it has a very distinct, nasty sound quality to it.

The window is off to the right. Bare wall behind me.
Moving around didn't change the perception of the very high frequencey distortion. I'm anxious to put some material behind the speakers. I do also close the drapes but that doesn't make much difference to that weird sound. I really need to capture a sample of the sound I' talking about.

 

[bobcat11]

My first question is: Can we eliminate the possibility that your system is defective? The language you used seems severe, like a component is clipping or a driver is damaged or out of tolerance/spec or something is resonating.

I really am trying to discover if it is a component making things worse.
I put the speakers in mono and the sound comes from the center.
The WIIM streamer may be a bit bright. Maybe the Fosi v3 amp is also bright but I don't have any thing to compare to now.
I turned the speakers upside down which didn't help much. My stands are to high so I thought the tweeter was maybe reflecting off the sealing and bouncing into my ears to make the ringing more noticeable.
I think I've just gotten a bit hyper sensitive to certain kinds of distortion in the recordings over the last couple years. Need to get my hearing checked. I'd rather find it is the equipment at fault than my ears.

 

[bobcat11]

Unfortunately, it will be difficult to get consistent, good sound in that room: as you've noted, bare walls and floors reflect sound and all those plastic shelving units are a resonance nightmare. Your speaker placement is also sub-optimal. In this situation, I think REW will be of no additional benefit compared to using the WiiM EQ and setting it to your personal liking.

Putting an area rug down is an easy first step. Can you move the plastic shelving out of the room and place your speakers on stands? Alternatively, consider draping a heavy blanket over the plastic units.

Have you considered a good pair of wireless sealed headphones or earphones? E.g. Sennheiser, Sony.

I know I need to fix the room. I'll try blankets on the shelvs. Don't have anywhere else to put them Lack of storage sppace here.

The sound was mostly pretty good compared to the JBLs. Just those real high vocal harmonics I was most concerned about.

I have headphones I like but I don't always want to listen that way.

 

[bobcat11]

I just returned the Elac B62. Will work on the room and get back to you all later.

Thanks for the good feedback from everyone.

Bob

 

[ozzy9832001]

If you have a mic, you can probably do an RTA of whatever song is causing the issues and see during that point what frequencies are spiking badly and that will give you a good indication of where the problem is. I did this myself where one song had an awful sound that sounded like a chair being drug across the floor. Ended up being a resonance at 190hz.