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Why sometimes listening to speaker demo better than the music itself

delta76

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Sometimes, when the setup is right, the microphone is of good quality, I feel like the sound in speaker demos is better than the music itself. For example


compared to

In the demo, it sounds "warmer", with more strength and bass, more "space" (forgive my ignorance on words). the official record sounds flat in comparison. I'm using Logitech G733 (I know, I know, don't kill me) on both.

Is there an explanation on that, or simply my ears are wrong?
 

ppataki

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There is waaaaaay too much treble on the first recording hence you hear more 'air' and 'space'
It is called the 'showroom sound'
It sounds great for like 10 minutes then you will get tired of it and possibly even get a headache
 
OP
D

delta76

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There is waaaaaay too much treble on the first recording hence you hear more 'air' and 'space'
It is called the 'showroom sound'
It sounds great for like 10 minutes then you will get tired of it and possibly even get a headache
interesting. what could cause the too much treble issue, hypothetically? placement of the speakers? "bad" amp? etc?
 

thewas

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interesting. what could cause the too much treble issue, hypothetically? placement of the speakers? "bad" amp? etc?
Usually its rather the frequency response of the recording chain, so anything from microphone to EQ at video processing.
Also recording is a profession itself, it is not as simple as just placing a good mic in a room and getting automatically a close representation of it.
 

tomtoo

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If you record in a room, you record automaticly the room reverb that adds to the original. And you add the bass support of that room.
That added room reverb was the way many old studios added reverb this way. They had a dedicated reverb room. Sure this was pre digital reverb era.
 

dananski

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Agree with the above. Bass and treble are blown out of proportion by the various stages the audio has gone through, and there's a ton of room reverb. It's also much louder, which always biases listeners. I can see the potential appeal when you hear that kind of tone. I'm listening without EQ at the moment and have massive treble response already so it kinda hurts my ears, but there's nothing wrong with having your own tastes, and who knows, maybe this makes up for some frequency response problems in the Logitechs.

I also strongly dislike the moments when the bass drum hits and the mic drops the level to compensate, but again, if you really love that 'sidechaining-like' sound then sure...? :p

My real concern is that you might miss quite a lot of what the artist and sound engineers were trying to communicate - the original really has that "holding something back" feeling, with gentle but clear guitar parts layering in gradually (bass thoughtfully supports it but doesn't dominate) and a hint of determination building in his voice. The dynamics build up a little, down a little then there's a pause before the big release of energy at "Cause even the stars they burn" which just feels so much more rewarding when you get the accumulation of quiet cues that it's coming. Note that most of these things I'm judging to be important are in the mids and in the dynamics.

For comparison, on the speaker demo I mainly hear oodles of warm bass that just makes everything feel super-chillaxed throughout - no sense of personal determination in the voice, less clear emotional direction, I notice nothing special or emotionally involving about his singing tone, I barely notice the guitar layering come in, and the dynamic variation is very flat, coming more from where they're holding the phone than anything in the song. It's a very different message to feel from your music and something to be conscious of.

Since you're using YouTube and Logitech headphones, I'd assume you're listening at the computer, so why not give some EQ a try, and even some reverb? You can listen to what songs you like and fine tune these effects precisely to your taste, leaving out any aspects you don't like as well as any loss in signal quality that comes from all these extra stages that produce the speaker demo audio.
 

JSmith

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YT videos with people "demoing" their systems are about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike or screen doors on a submarine... ;)


JSmith
 

dananski

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YT videos with people "demoing" their systems are about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike or screen doors on a submarine... ;)


JSmith
Oh it's certainly a useless way to show how well a system performs. Unless it perfectly recreates the original source material as confirmed with a null test, which would be extraordinarily impressive and probably tempt me to buy the equipment involved, starting with the microphone, then the acoustic treatment...
 
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D

delta76

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Agree with the above. Bass and treble are blown out of proportion by the various stages the audio has gone through, and there's a ton of room reverb. It's also much louder, which always biases listeners. I can see the potential appeal when you hear that kind of tone. I'm listening without EQ at the moment and have massive treble response already so it kinda hurts my ears, but there's nothing wrong with having your own tastes, and who knows, maybe this makes up for some frequency response problems in the Logitechs.

I also strongly dislike the moments when the bass drum hits and the mic drops the level to compensate, but again, if you really love that 'sidechaining-like' sound then sure...? :p

My real concern is that you might miss quite a lot of what the artist and sound engineers were trying to communicate - the original really has that "holding something back" feeling, with gentle but clear guitar parts layering in gradually (bass thoughtfully supports it but doesn't dominate) and a hint of determination building in his voice. The dynamics build up a little, down a little then there's a pause before the big release of energy at "Cause even the stars they burn" which just feels so much more rewarding when you get the accumulation of quiet cues that it's coming. Note that most of these things I'm judging to be important are in the mids and in the dynamics.

For comparison, on the speaker demo I mainly hear oodles of warm bass that just makes everything feel super-chillaxed throughout - no sense of personal determination in the voice, less clear emotional direction, I notice nothing special or emotionally involving about his singing tone, I barely notice the guitar layering come in, and the dynamic variation is very flat, coming more from where they're holding the phone than anything in the song. It's a very different message to feel from your music and something to be conscious of.

Since you're using YouTube and Logitech headphones, I'd assume you're listening at the computer, so why not give some EQ a try, and even some reverb? You can listen to what songs you like and fine tune these effects precisely to your taste, leaving out any aspects you don't like as well as any loss in signal quality that comes from all these extra stages that produce the speaker demo audio.
You are right, I am listening on my pc (usually with Tidal though), but it is not meant to be critical listening, just some music so I can concentrate and "get in the zone" for working.

I have some focal 948 waiting to be setup for actual critical listening, but admittedly it will be more for home theater than for music.

So I seem to start understanding things, music that exciting and lively can actually be bad because they are distorted, which is why some badly reviewed speakers like Klipsch RP600M are popular because many people like how it sounds (and they manufactured it that way for the sound signature). Interesting.
 

theyellowspecial

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In person those speakers will sound very smeared because of how early the sidewall reflections are, especially considering the wide dispersion of the Focals.
 
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