What am I hearing?

[TankTop]

My system sounds horrible 50% of the time, good 40% of the time and 10% of the time angels are singing, volcanoes are erupting and I’m sonically transported to an alternate universe! My wife always says it sounds fine and thinks I’m nuts. I’m leaning towards my source
as the main concern with speaker placement being a close second.

I have read many people describe a system as fatiguing and that’s mostly what is bothering me but also many times vocals sound hollow and flat, somewhat unnatural. A friend had a music studio and I remember how dead the studio was and many vocals sound like I’m in the studio listening with no reflections. The rest is movies and tv shows, vocals will be good, dramatic scenes are awesome then the next scene sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. I almost feel like when HD tv’s first came out and you could see the pours on everyone’s face and there was a lot of soap opera effect, that’s how my system sounds on lots of tv shows and movies.

Any advice before I throw it all in the street and get a sound bar would be great.

Special 40’s, Marantz SR5014, Xbox one x used as source for streaming movies and tv. Cat 5 for HEOS and I just subscribed to Tidal. Going to upgrade Tidal and try some master tracks and see what I hear.

 

[Koeitje]

If it sounds different on different source material its the source material you are hearing. There is plenty of stuff out there that sounds like ass.

 

[majingotan]

It's more of a psychoacoustics of concentrating too much in listening to music combined with physical fatigue of being sleepy or with less heightened senses. I experience the same phenomenon where I get worse listening fatigue since I'm tired both physically and mentally with any of the 5 different DACs, 3 different IEMs and even my Yamaha HS7 speakers. And listening at lower volumes doesn't really help while I'm under tiredness since I lose engaging SPL of 80 dB average. Then when I'm at my peak activity, I can listen to the same track over and over again and feel that that specific track sounded incredibly good today unlike yesterday for example.

 

[Liberal Democracy]

Your own state of mind.., you are likely the variable in this system.

 

[JeffS7444]

Did you run Audyssey room correction on your Marantz SR5014? That's the first thing I'd try. What are "Special 40's"?

 

[Alexanderc]

If you have the flexibility to do so, I would move the speakers all over the place and see if you can make them sound different. Play with spacing, distance from the walls, toe-in, even the speaker angle and height if you can. Find something that seems like, “yeah, that sounds better,” mark it with masking tape and listen for a couple of days. Then repeat.

 

[TankTop]

Did you run Audyssey room correction on your Marantz SR5014? That's the first thing I'd try. What are "Special 40's"?

Dynaudio Special 40’s. They don’t suck.

 

[TankTop]

Did you run Audyssey room correction on your Marantz SR5014? That's the first thing I'd try. What are "Special 40's"?

I do run Audyssey, I want to spend some time with speaker placement, get it as good as I can then rerun Audyssey.

 

[Alexanderc]

I do run Audyssey, I want to spend some time with speaker placement, get it as good as I can then rerun Audyssey.

Just make sure audyssey is off while you’re playing with placement. I’ve made that mistake a few times—switch inputs and forget that audyssey is enabled….

 

[andreasmaaan]

I do run Audyssey, I want to spend some time with speaker placement, get it as good as I can then rerun Audyssey.

How do they sound without room correction?

They are pretty decent speakers, so I would expect "correction" to have a reasonably high chance of actually messing things up if applied to the mids and highs (keep in mind, I am not specifically familiar with Audyssey).

 

[DSJR]

From personal experience, if it varies from day to day and the same music gives you different emotional perceptions played on different occasions, the issue is YOU, either ears, mood, health and so on. Worrying about it makes it worse as you 'tune in' to this aspect.

If the stereo sounds shite all the time, then there is a system or room matching problem I think. If your lady tells you it sounds the same all the time and she does enjoy listening to music when you don't, then I'd say it's yourself not 'into' the particular listening session. believe me, she'd tell you in no uncertain terms if your sound system was shite

I have no knowledge of current digital 'room correction,' but I think it's fair to say that some speaker bass loading arrangements just don't suit some rooms and a boomy speaker bass can't be eliminated by eq alone, as all you do is reduce the boom, rather than eliminate it at source. Dynaudios go from fairly rich and warm toned at one end to lean, 'bodyless' almost astringent and paint stripping 'HiFi' at the other highest end (Confidence 60's gave me a headache when other listeners were lapping them up) but I don't know your particular ones to comment further.

 

[TankTop]

From personal experience, if it varies from day to day and the same music gives you different emotional perceptions played on different occasions, the issue is YOU, either ears, mood, health and so on. Worrying about it makes it worse as you 'tune in' to this aspect.

If the stereo sounds shite all the time, then there is a system or room matching problem I think. If your lady tells you it sounds the same all the time and she does enjoy listening to music when you don't, then I'd say it's yourself not 'into' the particular listening session. believe me, she'd tell you in no uncertain terms if your sound system was shite

I have no knowledge of current digital 'room correction,' but I think it's fair to say that some speaker bass loading arrangements just don't suit some rooms and a boomy speaker bass can't be eliminated by eq alone, as all you do is reduce the boom, rather than eliminate it at source. Dynaudios go from fairly rich and warm toned at one end to lean, 'bodyless' almost astringent and paint stripping 'HiFi,' but I don't know your particular ones to comment further.

The Special 40’s in my system definitely go from paint stripping to magic and back again many times throughout the same movie. I will concede that it is me some of the time while listening to music but the fact that other times they can go from shite to sublime and back means there’s something wrong with the system or the source. I feel like they are too revealing and need to be in a dedicated audio setup with an excellent source only.

 

[andreasmaaan]

The Special 40’s in my system definitely go from paint stripping to magic and back again many times throughout the same movie. I will concede that it is me some of the time while listening to music but the fact that other times they can go from shite to sublime and back means there’s something wrong with the system or the source. I feel like they are too revealing and need to be in a dedicated audio setup with an excellent source only.

A poor source or amp will not generally ruin the listening experience unless something is terribly wrong with it - which I very much doubt is the case here.

And the Special Forties are not especially "revealing", just reasonably good examples of conventional standmount speakers with the basics in order, and some typical, relatively minor shortcomings.

I'd say the top candidates here (other than your day-to-day psychology) are:

• poor placement
• poor room correction
• poor recordings

 

[MichaelP]

Interesting topic.. did you settle on something that worked for you?

I also went through something similar with my system. Denon AVR, older Dynaudio Audience 70 speakers, new SVS subwoofer. Are you running a sub? I used a variety of 2-channel music to dial in the fronts. The list of things I tried:

1. Moving speakers away from the wall. Tame that boomy bass. (I ended up plugging the ports on my speakers, I just can't get them far enough into my room. I think Dynaudio recommends at least 1.5 meters. Might be less of an issue with the 40s given the only go down to 40Hz?)
2. Audyssey iOS app. It seems to do a much better job than the receiver with the analysis part, plus it gives you very detailed controls over the EQ. You can also save, edit, and upload changes to receiver. Here's a great guide to using it:
3. Play with speaker toe-in, it can really impact the sound-stage.
4. Trying omitting all the Audyssey correction at 500Hz and above, see the video in step 2. Also disable the stupid mids compensation.

I got things sounding pretty decent after much fiddling. Then things took an interesting turn to combining a dedicated 2-channel system with my home theater... still emerging from that madness. Can write more if you're interested.

Also those Special 40s are apparently something special. Considering updating to them.

 

[TankTop]

Interesting topic.. did you settle on something that worked for you?

I also went through something similar with my system. Denon AVR, older Dynaudio Audience 70 speakers, new SVS subwoofer. Are you running a sub? I used a variety of 2-channel music to dial in the fronts. The list of things I tried:

1. Moving speakers away from the wall. Tame that boomy bass. (I ended up plugging the ports on my speakers, I just can't get them far enough into my room. I think Dynaudio recommends at least 1.5 meters. Might be less of an issue with the 40s given the only go down to 40Hz?)
2. Audyssey iOS app. It seems to do a much better job than the receiver with the analysis part, plus it gives you very detailed controls over the EQ. You can also save, edit, and upload changes to receiver. Here's a great guide to using it:
3. Play with speaker toe-in, it can really impact the sound-stage.
4. Trying omitting all the Audyssey correction at 500Hz and above, see the video in step 2. Also disable the stupid mids compensation.

I got things sounding pretty decent after much fiddling. Then things took an interesting turn to combining a dedicated 2-channel system with my home theater... still emerging from that madness. Can write more if you're interested.

Also those Special 40s are apparently something special. Considering updating to them.

Nope, still playing with them but I’ve started using Tidal and source material makes a world of difference. They can be boomy and I can’t get them much further from the wall, maybe put the port plugs in and add a 2nd sub crossed over at 80hz instead of 60hz. If I had it to do over I would have bought something different, they’re just too much to deal with for a novice like myself. They are absolutely “special”, they’re very warm until they aren’t and the Esotar tweeter is never bright but it can pierce your soul! I went to a local hi-fi store that used to carry Dynaudio audio and some of the employees own Dyn’s themselves and they agreed that certain types of audio can sound atrocious.

Watch the show Power (great show btw) and the soundtrack and audio is mostly fantastic but there are many scenes where the dialogue is terrible. Dialogue on TV shows and some sitcom’s will often make me want to run the speakers over with my truck!

 

[MichaelP]

Nope, still playing with them but I’ve started using Tidal and source material makes a world of difference. They can be boomy and I can’t get them much further from the wall, maybe put the port plugs in and add a 2nd sub crossed over at 80hz instead of 60hz. If I had it to do over I would have bought something different, they’re just too much to deal with for a novice like myself. They are absolutely “special”, they’re very warm until they aren’t and the Esotar tweeter is never bright but it can pierce your soul! I went to a local hi-fi store that used to carry Dynaudio audio and some of the employees own Dyn’s themselves and they agreed that certain types of audio can sound atrocious.

Watch the show Power (great show btw) and the soundtrack and audio is mostly fantastic but there are many scenes where the dialogue is terrible. Dialogue on TV shows and some sitcom’s will often make me want to run the speakers over with my truck!

Interesting stuff regarding how bright they are. My ancient Dyns are anything but bright. When my local HiFi shop re-opens I’ll defIntently audition them.

What Audyssey curve are you using? Try the reference curve if you haven’t already. The flat curve is overly bright to my ears.

 

[Eetu]

One thing to add that has a huge impact on how much I enjoy the system on different days: ambient/room noise.

I'm not saying don't try critical listening with kids running around (well, that too). But small things like a dishwasher going in the next room, making sure all windows are closed etc. I've heard people changing their fridges for a quieter model to lower noise.