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Why does it sound less dynamic?

It has been a great puzzle to me. I have upgraded my whole chain from a SFL-2 with a PA-7 STASIS amp from Nakamichi connected to some PBJs, three Racing cones connected to a pair of Gershman X-1s, and SW-1 companion woofers and some old japanese digital front end (CHEAP*) and switched the power cord to Synergistic Master Couplers and the set up sounded explosively dynamic etc . . . .and since then, I switched to Sonic Frontiers Power 2, and added the BEL CANTO DAC-1, to my Panasonic DVD player, which was wired with Synergistic Research Alpha Sterlings and the whole set up sounds worser than before. The soundstage is less dynamic, the inmediacy is gone and overall, I feel a lot less excited by the results. I would say that somehow the digital sound sounds a little more artificial and annoying than before. What is wrong? Is the amp slow sounding? Is the digital front end bad? What caused this problems? I need help with this connondrum
bemopti123
joe_b
421 posts
 
First I would check and make sure your amp and preamp are working properly and no tubes are defective. Also, make sure you are not getting any bad power spikes or RFI problems. I am not familiar with your speakers. I have a Bel Canto and have found that with the wrong cables and transport, it can sound closed in or bland. If you are using the power cord that came with the Bel Canto, suggest you replace that with almost anything else. I had to experiment for awhile until I got a combination of cables that worked best. Also, the Bel Canto takes a few weeks to settle in. I am not convinced that a DVD player is the best transport to use, but rather than get rid of it, a cost effective upgrade may be to get a used jitter reduction device.
no_money
638 posts
 
I agree with Joe. Dvd players are for dvds,unless you go to the VERY high end. Look for a used transport. It shouldn't run you too much.
pops
2,272 posts
 
I think Joe and No_money are right on - I recently had to send my Meridian 200 transport in for repairs and substituted a Rotel 855 driving my Meridian DAC and the sound worsened considerably! The soundstage really suffered, much as you have described, just less real - no excitment at all. I lost alot of clarity also which can be related to that immediacy we all like. I had to listen to it this way for 6 weeks and never got used to it - I started watching more TV - bummer!!
sol322
426 posts
 
Keep in mind that even where you position a cone under the equipment could influence the music coming out of your speakers. Seems that you need to play around with your setup and cabling to (possibly) get back to something closer to your previous "sound". Have you made the changes recently?
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,137 posts
 
The above post should all be heeded, it is likely that there is an equipment mismatch. However, let me suggest another possibility, maybe your system doesn't "excite" because it is truly lower in distortion. In recording studios there are a number of different effect products that essentially add harmonic distortion to the music. As a generic group these products are called exciters. The make the music "hot", if only temporarily; long-term their use is quite irritating. In high end reproduction a similar situation can occur. A detailed, but higher distortion system can sound more interesting than a truly resolving, low distortion setup, at least in a direct comparison. What I'm really getting at is, if your system is evolving towards higher musical resolution, it might not sound more exciting, but instead sound more real.
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