[Photon46]

That CD is horrible!

Wrong! If you have a bad sounding CD in your collection of a name brand studio like warner bros or EMI or any of the mainstreams recording companies you send that CD to me and I'll give you a list of things that your system may be doing incorrectly.

Many people judge a recording by their system and don't let the recording be a guide for them to find an area of their system they may need to open up. All recordings sound different and your system is not on auto fix mode. I've read review after review of paned recordings that sound bad on the reviewers system but fantastic on a system that is in tune with the recording. There is no need for you to miss out on your favorite pieces of music. If they sound screechy or hard there is a reason and it isn't the recording. Something in your system is clearly out of tune with that piece of music.

sic.

Michael, I'm curious about further thoughts on this point. Are you saying a properly tuned system will reproduce ALL recordings (from major studios) in a harmonically pleasant manner? Case in point are Lindsay Buckingham and Dwight Yoakam's recordings. As my systems have evolved over the years, their recordings have become more and more listenable. I'm at the point now where I can listen to them and totally enjoy them without wincing at their (to my tastes) surplus of treble information. However, their recordings still sound like they were mixed by someone who had their hearing blown out by standing too close to their guitar amps for too many years! It seems to me a great system will let you appreciate each recording's unique characteristics and simply be able to clearly hear that not all recordings are created equally (while at the same time not exacerbating recording faults to the point one finds them unlistenable.)

[PRELUDE]

  You're trying too hard dude, what's the rush? Audio Circle is not like speed dating, we like to get to know you first. Is that so bad?

 
 

10 pages of highly classified audio myths and you still do not know him?
I wish he was the plastic green head because I love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMg0rwIMzyg&list=PL020B822A159A7005&index=7&feature=plpp_video

[tomytoons]

Awesome!!!!!

[Diamond Dog]

PRELUDE :  That tune is DA BOMB ! Straight into my Amazon basket! Where do you find this stuff???

D.D.

[PRELUDE]

PRELUDE :  That tune is DA BOMB ! Straight into my Amazon basket! Where do you find this stuff???

D.D.

D.D,
They have been one of my favorite doom metal bands since 1979 and are very regarded in Europe but the band is from Chicago. Some people are not afraid to call them American Black Sabbath.

[michael green MGA]

Michael, I'm curious about further thoughts on this point. Are you saying a properly tuned system will reproduce ALL recordings (from major studios) in a harmonically pleasant manner? Case in point are Lindsay Buckingham and Dwight Yoakam's recordings. As my systems have evolved over the years, their recordings have become more and more listenable. I'm at the point now where I can listen to them and totally enjoy them without wincing at their (to my tastes) surplus of treble information. However, their recordings still sound like they were mixed by someone who had their hearing blown out by standing too close to their guitar amps for too many years! It seems to me a great system will let you appreciate each recording's unique characteristics and simply be able to clearly hear that not all recordings are created equally (while at the same time not exacerbating recording faults to the point one finds them unlistenable.)

Hi 46

I basically take two different approaches when listening. One is a fixed sound. That's when I let a system that seems to be pretty well matched just keep settling. In time if there is not a ton of blockage in the signal path music that was so so sounding at first starts sounding pretty good. And as you say then we can make judgements on what the studio did or didn't do.  Someone mention B&W earlier. Well the B&W JB version was famous for it's settling capability. When we first would get them in they were terrible but 2 years down the road with the right amps and source they settled into a very harmonic based speaker set up. Some of the designers I think back around that time were spending a ton of time on system combos in their designing and when you put some of these systems together they in time just settled into their own groove. The systems became relaxed and the harmonics opened up without a ton of tweaking, but there is usually a little tweaking needed. If your system has settled in so you can play about any thing you are blessed, don't touch a thing. I hate making a change on a well tuned system. Takes forever to settle back in.

My second type of system is one that I actually tune like an instrument to each individual recording. So as the recording is playing I mechanically tune in the sound till the stage and harmonics open up.

I like and use both types but I've always liked to explore in and out of the studio so the second one is my favorite. If you ever get a chance to go to a tunable studio you would get a kick out of the playback. I usually have 2 or 3 going at any time. The next one will be in San Diego early next year.

lindsay is killer but his stuff does tilt. With this type of recording there are certain things I do to voice in the mids and highs to mellow things. Some of them quick acoustical adjustments but a lot of it is done with the mechanics of the equipment. If you visit my site we talk a lot about how to tune these things in.

Thanks for the post, nice to be getting around to the music. Have a great weekend.

[michael green MGA]

10 pages of highly classified audio myths and you still do not know him?
I wish he was the plastic green head because I love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMg0rwIMzyg&list=PL020B822A159A7005&index=7&feature=plpp_video

Finally some good humor What took you so long, don't you know me by now.

[*Scotty*]

For what its worth I just got finished listening the DCC vinyl Steve Hoffman mastering of Jethro Tull Aqualung. The very first cut has some radical studio effects but this doesn't sound bad, just a little strange, the rest of the record doesn't have these effects and sounds more familiar or similar to reality.
 There seems to be some opinions to the effect that most of the CD transfers are not well done a possible remedy for this is the Nov 2011 release of the Aqualung 40th Anniversary 2 CD set. I've got this in my Christmas wish list as I have never purchased a CD version of Aqualung.
Scotty

[michael green MGA]

For what its worth I just got finished listening the DCC vinyl Steve Hoffman mastering of Jethro Tull Aqualung. The very first cut has some radical studio effects but this doesn't sound bad, just a little strange, the rest of the record doesn't have these effects and sounds more familiar or similar to reality.
 There seems to be some opinions to the effect that most of the CD transfers are not well done a possible remedy for this is the Nov 2011 release of the Aqualung 40th Anniversary 2 CD set. I've got this in my Christmas wish list as I have never purchased a CD version of Aqualung.
Scotty

I was thinking about picking up a copy too.

[Diamond Dog]

I was checking out the Tuneland website and got attacked by a virus on the "Clients" page - blocked and quarantined by my security program. Thanks again, Mike. Hell of a job you're doing.


D.D. 

[timind]

I checked MG's web site and his rant about Audiocircle. I'm not sure who his audience is over there as there are only a couple of comments by anyone but MG. Also, I have no interest in the opinions of a person who uses a 30-year-old Glamour Shots photo of himself as his avatar.

[Guy 13]

I checked MG's web site and his rant about Audiocircle. I'm not sure who his audience is over there as there are only a couple of comments by anyone but MG. Also, I have no interest in the opinions of a person who uses a 30-year-old Glamour Shots photo of himself as his avatar.

Hi timind and all Audio Circle members.

Well said, I could not have said it better
and yes, his avatar is old and not very inviting.
Never trusted a person hiding behind a beard,
but that's me with my old fashion ideas.

Guy 13

[SteveFord]

So that's where those viruses came from.
I ran a full sweep and there were four of them.
MicroSoft Security Essentials to the rescue.
Mr. Green, you need to check out your site and prune some of that stuff that got slipped in there.

[werd]

So that's where those viruses came from.
I ran a full sweep and there were four of them.
MicroSoft Security Essentials to the rescue.
Mr. Green, you need to check out your site and prune some of that stuff that got slipped in there.

He's tuning your computer dude.

[SteveFord]

Some things are better left untuned.
My wife's laptop,  for one.
She'll turn around and tune me! 

From doing a search it looks like the room treatments might be worth looking into:

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/db05.htm

It looks like the wood is tensioned with a bolt through it similar to a truss rod in a guitar neck. 

[Guy 13]

Some things are better left untuned.
My wife's laptop,  for one.
She'll turn around and tune me! 

From doing a search it looks like the room treatments might be worth looking into:

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/db05.htm

It looks like the wood is tensioned with a bolt through it similar to a truss rod in a guitar neck.

Hi Steve and all Audio Circle members.

Am I stupid or what?
(Please don't answer that question.)

I really don't see/understand how those things work.

Any additional picture from another angle or a sketch explaining how to install.

Thanks.

Guy 13

[werd]

I like werd. He's one of the few that can take it as well as dish it out, but I don't put a lot of stock in what he claims to hear. I'm sure he hears it and I'm sure I wouldn't. Your "tunes" don't really lend thenselves to DBT, do they?
I sure would like to hear from a few of your acolytes
Doc

You're ok too.... 

[michael green MGA]

Some things are better left untuned.
My wife's laptop,  for one.
She'll turn around and tune me! 

From doing a search it looks like the room treatments might be worth looking into:

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/db05.htm

It looks like the wood is tensioned with a bolt through it similar to a truss rod in a guitar neck.

thanks for posting this Steve

The PZC has a tuning board on the inside as part of the frame then a tuning bar or washers depending on at what stage the PZC's were built. Their more voiced than back when this review was done. The bolt lets you adjust the outer and inner boards and voices your room to a full range of variables.

[jubal]

I've been using the PZCs (both wall mount and floor standing) just like those in the picture above for the last few years. The bare room has lots of reverb and echo, and sounds terrible untreated. It would give anyone a headache listening there for any length of time. The devices control the sound energy well enough to make the room a place where I can listen for hours (ok, sometimes I fall asleep with a cd on repeat  ). The floorstanding PZCs also help me create the kind of center imaging I like, and adjust it if I want.

Other tweaks Michael Green has suggested over the years have produced significant improvements. For example, removing the cover of my 75-lb 220wpc solid state amp and cracking the internal and external screws 90 degrees, which simply relieves some of the mechanical tension in the amp, opened up my amp and allowed for a more natural sound. I also removed the transformer from the amp (the wires were plenty long), and the bass improved in quality.

All I can say is try one or two tweaks (one at a time though), give your system a week or better two to settle in (it actually may sound worse to your ears initially as your system's equilibrium has been disturbed), and then hear if you like the difference. Not sure what all the fussing here is about. If you try it and it works for you, it works; if it doesn't, it doesn't.   

[rollo]

Charles, to me it's like this, OK?  I am not saying that your friend Mr.Green does not have a right to ply his trade here in the Commercial Zone and expound his personal theories on how to get better sound. That's not my call.  If some of the locals want to drink the Kool-Aid and become "Tunees", that sort of thing has gone on since the beginning of time and will go on until the end of time. Fine by me. I won't be shopping at the MGA website any time soon based on the pitch I've sen here  but if others want to, it's their dime. Proof or no proof. For me, this isn't about that. I'm positive that there are folks here who will click on my system and accuse me of being as big a subjectivist as anyone and perhaps that's so. So, glass houses and all that, tweak away. Sure I've come across a little cynical and snarky in a coupla posts but I am a profoundly flawed individual somewhat prone to those vices. Sorry if anyone takes offense.

That being said, when you reach a point where people are being encouraged to do things that are not so harmless, things that will at best void warranties and damage equipment but at worst cause injury to themselves and others, what is Mr.Green going to have to say about that ? See the legal disclaimer he made in an earlier post for the answer to that question. Ever been inside a burning house, Chuck ?

How 'bout you, Michael ?

D.D.

   First off Michael is not my "friend", associate or other, just an AC poster like you. I find the tuning of gear interesting. It is fine to doubt or disagree. That is how we learn if wiling. I hold my comments until I try  otherwise my comments would be unfair to the OP. That's all I'm saying .



charles