When low distortion is boring... then Saturn 2

[Rja4000]

it doesn’t give me goosebumps. (Actually, reproduced sound very rarely achieves that level of realism, and when it does it’s often by accident, and I usually associate such occurrences when hearing a source where little to NO dynamic compression or limiting has been used, and that’s rare.)

Speaking of this, one time I really had, literally, goosebumps with a music, it was on a raw take of a cello, in the studio La Chapelle (Waimes), back in early 2000s. Through the HUGE, wall-mounted, Genelec 1036A (I think).

After effects and processing, the sound came back to "normal". Unfortunately.

 

[Rja4000]

Hi everyone.
I wanted to share with you my recent experience with my HiFi system, consisting of the NHT C3 with two DIY Scan-Speak subwoofers, Hypex nCore amplifiers, and Motu Ultralite Mk5 DAC (with passive attenuators).
The SINAD of my system is sufficiently low, around -100dB, and as I assembled it I noticed the cleanliness of the sound compared to the more commercial and audiophile components I had before.
There will certainly be some of the aspects and parameters of my system that are not SOTA, but my budget is this so I aimed at the best price / performance ratio.
However, I can say that the sound of my system, even if corrected with Dirac Live with various target curve, has never got me excited.
Sometimes I found it so accurate to highlight the shortcomings of some tracks, making me almost crazy trying to figure out if it was a fault of my system or what...
To which I concluded that "Hi-Fi" in the truest sense of the word is just plain boring. You can turn down the distortion and noise and time domain problems as much as you want, but what's left isn't necessarily thrilling...
Then I decided to try with my ears the euphonic effect of the vintage style distortion and then I inquired about the appropriate plugins, ending up identifying the Saturn 2 of Fabfilter and the Trash 2 of iZotope.
They are basically the two best distortion engines on the market in terms of quality. There is no story about this.
However they are particularly complex, especially Trash2.
Saturn is far more user friendly and after some time tweaking I decided to just try out the existing presets.
I open the list ... I see a certain "The Tube", and I think, ok that's the right one.
I load it and I see that it has been programmed in a crazy way, 3 modulators that follow the envelope and a slider to set the entity of the character, each of them controlling like 10 different parameters.
I play at this point ..... WTF !!!!!!!!!!
It may be light years away from fidelity but how cool! Or rather, how warm! A very warm sound that is very reminiscent of vintage systems.
The guy who created the plugin is a genius, let me tell you. No other preset sounds like this.
My system has gotten hugely more enjoyable to listen to now. It's exciting finally. And all because of the distortion ...
So if you're not happy with your system, try a distortion plugin before spending any more money. Maybe that's all you want and you don't know it, like me.

I guess this kind of effect is really interesting with a multiband filter, and with some dynamics.
Adding distortion to low bass notes, especially the peaks, will add some level at the harmonics, which should make your music sound louder, more full (even harmonics) and punchy (odd harmonics), while keeping the voices and low details untouched...

Worth some trials and errors

You may then

 

[Davide]

A detail:
SINAD is SIgnal on Noise And Distortion.
That means it a positive figure, just like SNR (Signal on Noise Ratio).
As such, it's the same figure than THD+N, but with sign inverted.

So I guess you meant "SINAD is sufficently high, around 110dB"

Yes, of course, my mistake.

 

[DavidMcRoy]

I commented on this post a month ago and just came across it again, just as I was fooling around with daisychained ADCs and DACs in a (very common these days) “hybrid analog and digital” system. I understand exactly where the OP is coming from, and I’ve experienced it myself. My recent experiences have given me a fresh appreciation of the phenomenon.

I suspect an added layer or layers of ADCs, DACs and so on becomes audible, screwing up the sound. I get the same dull transients and lack of air from each added insertion of such into a system, be it an outboard DSP with analog inputs and outputs, an active speaker with analog inputs and internal DSP, or every Class D amplifier I’ve ever encountered. The benefits of all of those devices are undeniable, but it seems to come at a price. The obvious solution, beyond higher resolution in such equipment, is maintaining a digital signal until it reaches the drivers.

When I worked in broadcast TV for decades, I lived through the transition from all-analog video facilities to stations with lots of “digital islands,” as they were called that had to interact with analog gear, and finally to all-digital audio and video. “It gets better.”

 

[Jukka]

My input to this subject is short and undeniable: the best stereo system is the one that gives its owner most pleasure.

We are all different, so we have different tastes, and that is good!

Thanks for pointing out the plugins, I'll give them a try!

 

[DavidMcRoy]

My input to this subject is short and undeniable: the best stereo system is the one that gives its owner most pleasure.

We are all different, so we have different tastes, and that is good!

Thanks for pointing out the plugins, I'll give them a try!

I certainly agree in principle. As Nelson Pass has stated, highend and high performance audio are part of the entertainment industry. Just as I strive for more transparent sound reproduction because it pleases me, there is nothing illegitimate about someone else choosing to alter the signal in some contrary way to get the experience they seek.

My proposal is one which will improve transparency in a way that would pacify purists as well as those who may advocate a different approach, one which artificially introduces pleasant distortions to the sound in an effort to compensate for the errors of omission caused by inadequate or inappropriately applied digital processing elsewhere in the signal chain.

If what you’re “missing” is lost resolution and detail, my approach is best. If you simply crave tube distortion effects, that’s another matter. Look, I LOVE “good-sounding” tube distortions as much as anyone. You and I hear it and enjoy it every day since it’s widely used in the sound recording for music, video production, movie production etc. as a tool. As a retired professional, I know it when I hear it because I’ve used it myself in the production stage. But I personally don’t want to pile on more of it at home. Doing so sounds nasty to my ear. I suppose a dedicated tube junky could arrange to make it something that could be switched in and out at will.