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Do You Ever Get Glare/Raspy Sound on High Pitched Female Vocal Lines?

I sometimes get a harsh glare or slightly raspy sound on female vocal lines when they sing loud, high pitched notes.  It’s hard to explain the sound exactly, but if you’ve ever experienced it, you’ll know what I’m speaking of.  Two examples are Norah Jones, Don’t Know Why at 1:57 with line  “You’ll be ON my mind”.   The other is Michael Bluble’s Quando, Quando, Quando featuring Nelly Furtardo.  Her line “I can’t wait a moment more, Tell me quando, quando, quando” at 1:53 is another good example.  This happens at moderate to fairly loud volume levels. 

Trying to determine if it’s coming from the midrange section or quasi ribbon tweeter, I’ve disconnected the speaker jumpers from one while keeping the other jumped and found it occurs in both the midrange and the tweeters.  I’ve also swapped out two other DACs and have bypassed the preamp by going directly to the amp from the DACS, but it makes no difference.  It doesn’t sound like clipping distortion or typical speaker breakup.  I’ve even inserted 1 ohm resistors on the Magnepans  and while it reduces it a bit, it’s still there.  I can also hear it to a somewhat lesser degree on my old Theil 1.5s and KEF KS50s at fairly loud, but not crazy volume levels.  Both of those speakers are driven with 400 watt @ 4 Ohms and a 300 watt @ 4 Ohms amps respectively.  I can’t imagine that I’m clipping the amps.

Does anyone else have this occur on their systems?  Any ideas on what’s going on here?

My system is Magnepan 3.7x speakers, PS Audio Airlens, Stellar Gold DAC, PMG Signature preamp & BHK 250 amp, streaming Tidal. 

stevehardy1
toddalin's avatar
toddalin
674 posts
 

@steakster  does have a point, though it may not be applicable in this instance.

My system is all on one dedicated 20 amp breaker with 125 feet of 8-gauge stranded Romex with no splices.  I even put a big ferrite bead where the wire exits the breaker box, and have them in several places in the system, including a couple on the Oppo plug.

This is on the "first" breaker box from the street.  The rest of the house, including the pool and spa, is on a second (original) breaker box that is separated from the "street" breaker by ~75 feet.  So there is quite a distance between the power going to the stereo and that going to the rest of the household.

Still, there are times when I distinctly hear the "hash" and others when I don’t playing the same cut.  I’ve also noted that the "hash" is worse on my Yamaha 2300 SACD as opposed to my Oppo-95 SACD..., which has a better power supply.

So, yes, I think this hash can be attributed to the power company and the Oppo is just better able to deal with it.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
8,139 posts
 

@stevehardy1 did you try to move the speakers closer together?

xmbw4
38 posts
 

I posted yesterday, but I don't see it, so I'll ask again. Can you list the cables in your system? Its not what you think. There's a specific issue that you need to rule out, but I need to know what type of cables you have. It may, or may not apply.

inagroove
296 posts
 

Just played my copy, and it sounds as clear as a whistle - no glare at all.  Simply georgous.

I do not know why yours sound bright, but you may want to begin your search with a better recording.

... I played my Classic Records four, single-sided 45-rpm LP set of Come Away With Me. 

Unfortunately, I expect this is as close as I will ever get to having Nora in my living room ;-(

toddalin's avatar
toddalin
674 posts
 

OK, I'll bite.  I ordered her CD and it should be here in a few days.

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