Digital Music sounds too bright?


If you feel your digital sound is too bright - I suggest you place a lightweight blanket over your tv screen or computer screen, if you have it placed between your main speakers. I did this and immediately heard a less edgy sound and improved separation between left and right channels.  I have a 55 inch screen between my mains (Tyler Acoustics). This easy and free tweak made a noticeable improvement for me. Hope it will for you too. 

(It makes complete sense that this will reduce some reflected sound. No one would ever recommend placing a mirror or window between main speakers, but a screen has the same effect. If you have a coffee table in front of you when listening, it also could reflect sound that undermines your speakers. Try covering it or moving it away). 
philtangerine
@audioengr 

+1

"BTW, brightness is not usually due to acoustics. Its usually something else. Most people go down the garden path using cables that act as filter, ferrite beads or blankets to snuff-out the HF sounds. This is the wrong path to take.

Figure out what components are really at fault. Usually excessive jitter from the source, whether computer or CD player, or poor preamp that adds too much distortion and has poor power delivery or even sometimes a bad DAC. This is typical."

Yup. I would always address what components are really at fault FIRST before using cables to filter the poor sound.

In fact, if special cables are necessary it may indicate a component is at fault or two components are incompatible with each other.
Obviously the scattered background CD laser light is getting into the photodetector and producing errors. Which is why the Green Pen works, by absorbing red light as it spreads out from around the outer edge of the CD. Green, or more specifically turquoise or cyan, absorbs red light because it’s the complementary color for red. Now here’s where it gets tricky. The CD laser wavelength is actually around 780 nanometers nm which is in the near infrared spectrum of light, I.e., invisible light. There is some red in the laser light because the wavelength is close to visible red on the spectrum and because there is some discrete bandwidth to the laser light, it’s not monochromatic. Therefore one can reasonably conclude that the bandwidth of the laser extends above visible red )which stops around 700 nm) up to around 850 nm. Thus the Green pen only affects the visible red part of the spectrum below 700 nm. The rest of the laser light above 700 nm can not (rpt not) be affected by color. I.e., there is no complement for infrared (invisible) light. So, we have the situation where quite a lot of scattered laser light is getting into the photodetector EVEN IF MUCH OF IT IS ABSORBED BY THE GREEN OR TURQUOISE COLOR around the outer edge.
Ok, so I noticed with a mid fi HT/2 channel system that putting a blanket over a 55" flat screen noticeably improved 2 channel soundstage for both analog and digital front ends in purpose built room. Soundstage with analog front end clearly better than internal DACs for Arcam receiver. Add an external DAC, soundstage improved sans blanket. Add external linear power supply? Better. Add good power cable for LPS? Better. With all these improvements in digital front end, blanket still helped. Add solid core quality copper speaker cables (21’), soundstage for digital and analog front ends now detailed and continuous side to side. BLANKET ON TV NOW DECREASES SOUNDSTAGE DETAIL. My experience tends to support many of the points made here, yet is hard for me to grasp what exactly is going on. Better imaging from speakers interacts differently with surface between them, and improving direct output crosses some point where blanket actually hinders presentation? Maybe try different coverings (default was thick fleece throw). Can see rabbit hole from here.

kn

Like I said before, acoustic absorption between the speakers is not recommended.  Only scattering devices, also called diffusers.  Most speakers also need the reinforcement for bass from the backwall.

I have a system that achieves pinpoint imaging with a 65" screen between and behind the speakers.  I can get this because of the 1/4 round tube-traps next to the screen, the ultra-low jitter of my sources and the fact that I have zero ground-loops in my system.  No component is grounded to any other component, except through the AC power outlets.


Steve N.

Empirical Audio