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What is the weak point in my system?

Help!  My system is 4 years old.  I have a BluesSound Vault 2 streamer (with all of my CD quality music) into a Chord Quetest D/A converter.  My amplifier is a Parasound A21+ driving Vandersteen Treo CTs.  All my cords and cabling cabling are  AudioQuest.  Then there's the preamp.

My Rogue RP-7 had an upper midrange glare so I swapped out the 4 tubes for warmer NOS Mullards.  That solved the problem.

Then I upgraded it to an RP-7 V2.  Even with the Mullards, the midrange glare was back and with a tilted up frequency response thinning it out robbing voices of any chest.  But, it was much more dynamic with greater 3-D imaging and transparency.  

So I bought a used Audio Research LS27 line stage (from 2010).  The midrange glare is gone (except at high volume levels) and the frequency response is much more neutral.  But compared to the RP-7 V2, it's a little foggy without the transparent 3-D or dynamics.

Posters here say there is not much difference in the sound of streamers, so what do you think is happening?

 

allstar
rick_n's avatar
rick_n
487 posts
 

I think that when people say there's no difference amongst streamers they're really referring to entry level gear.  If someone says their Wiim sounds as good as an Innuous Statement I'm gonna have to call BS.  I moved up from a Node with LPS to a higher end Aurender and there are distinct differences.  With a higher end streamer you will get:  Better clocking, better DAC (if applicable) more robust digital outputs like isolated USB and balanced AES, much better noise suppression.  All of this adds up to lower noise floor and less jitter.  What I found in my system is much better soundstage, and most importantly smoother sound (less unnatural dB peaks and valleys of emphasis that's not native to the recording).  

Another lane to try is switching DACs.  Different DACs truly sound different.  If you're fighting glare maybe try a ladder DAC.  Lots of guys has had great success with this and I would think it's worth a try.  Good luck and cheers.  

jallan's avatar
jallan
429 posts
 

I certainly agree that a good start would be to replace the streamer with something like an Aurender and consider getting a ladder based dac. 

jrareform's avatar
jrareform
199 posts
 

OP, buy a Umik-1 and do a frequency sweep on each channel and a combined one.  The associated graphs would tell us a lot more and would probably save you a lot of money rather than replacing gear.  Glare is very often acoustics related I've found.  Just a simple panel for first reflections on each side would help a lot most likely.  Also a panel on each side would probably help with that frequency tilt possibly as well.  And there are art panels for spousal approval factor. 

But yes graphs would tell us more and prove or disprove my theory.    You have put a lot of money, effort and time into your system.  It's worth taking the 30 minutes to bounce noise through your system and graph it and/or throw up a couple panels and see if you like the change!  Otherwise you will be playing whack a mole as your room plays tradeoffs with your sound.  Best of luck to you!

mapman's avatar
mapman
23,642 posts
 

Assuming gear is in good working order, I’d recommend looking at digital tone controls perhaps even DSP and room correction to fix the sound.

 

Use this to help assess what adjustments might be needed:

 

Reddit - https://external-preview.redd.it/h-M9EjIW2B0J1EX2w0Wo4fTRwznpLHnFFVExS8wZNvE.jpg?auto=webp&s=fb91a0e866666dc1bdd3a04bd4f70e8c59282a15

 

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