I Have Officially Lost It

pansixt · « **on:** 24 Nov 2013, 05:06 am »

I'm back to the starting block.
I have a very nice rig. All tubes. Great DAC. All systems go. But. My best source is my cable box with the Sounds of The Seasons or Whatever.
I'm serious. With that source I have the biggest soundstage, the most presence, the most, most. Staggering Sound.

Then, I play the best most expensive vinyl, it sounds lifeless. listless. The same Top Dollar Grado IC' from the SOTA TT that used to soundso F ing good thru the Mac SS Pre.

Anything thru the SBox (FLAC) sounds way too bright. With no low end.

At first I thought it was the MMG's. But again with the cable box out to the AVA DAC, the room is alive and the low end is there
.
I mean alive with presence. Staggering shit.

Makes no sense to me. Makes no sense. Have you gone there? Any of you? I'm reaching... I'm.. Not a happy listener.

I am Old, but I have not gone round the bend. I Hope. Or Maybe, I have.

James

Edit: Frank told me that I will need a stronger amp to power the Maggies. And I look forward to that. And a bass driver of some sort would be involved. But the brief movements from the CATV converter stops me in m tracks. Holy Shit, what sound.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #1 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 05:21 am »

Congratulations.

You've reached the zenith of musical bliss without the pesky hardware that generally requires that level of happiness.
More power to ya man. Rock on.

>stop reading now<

Just think of the money you'll have in your wallet when you sell off all of your audiophile approved equipment.
Then you can go about having the CATV box modded to sound even better.

I told you that you should have stopped reading by now.

pansixt · « **Reply #2 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 05:25 am »

Thanks Bob. Yes, I am done chasing that Dragon. No, you Jackass, I don't give up that simply. For I am the Jackass.
PS Bob. Just Playing.

pansixt · « **Reply #3 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 05:31 am »

Anyone with a similar experience? POST>>>

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #4 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 05:37 am »

I get first dibs.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #5 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 05:39 am »

Oh....

But yes....Musical happiness doesn't necessarily occur because you've spent $______
In some cases, it requires so much less to achieve so much more.

pansixt · « **Reply #6 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 05:47 am »

I feel ya. I have spent a mere pittance in comparison to what a lot have spent in this pursuit.

Still the quandary is that I can't understand the anomaly, of which I first posted.

James

WireNut · « **Reply #7 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 07:00 am »

Pansixt,

I hear ya. See this thread in progress....

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=121234.0

JLM · « **Reply #8 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 12:49 pm »

My first guess would be is poor system synergy but it seems that your DAC/pre/power amp are all from the same vendor (AVA) so it hard to accept.

Frankly I'm not a fan of too many tubes in the signal path (like mixing too many spices or ingredients together).

But there's a lot to be said for enjoyment from simple solutions.

HAL · « **Reply #9 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 01:02 pm »

James,

One thing that might be going on is that the cable box might be using EQ on the feed. I know FM stations do that all the time.

Photon46 · « **Reply #10 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 01:12 pm »

Pansixt, I tried to figure out what your signal path is from your post and system description, but I'm still confused. What are you using for a phono preamp now instead of the McIntosh that you used to use? Is there an onboard phono pre in the VanAlstine preamp? How many variables have changed since you were last satisfied with the sound of your vinyl rig?

I will say that the audio quality out of my Samsung digital DVR/cable box is quite good. When I listen to a good signal from something like the Metropolitan Opera broadcast on PBS, the audio quality is very decent. I certainly don't sit around and think it sounds poor in comparison to my other sources.

bladesmith · « **Reply #11 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 02:17 pm »

How long have you been running your current set of tubes...?

smargo · « **Reply #12 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 03:17 pm »

Quote from: pansixt on 24 Nov 2013, 05:06 am

I'm back to the starting block.
I have a very nice rig. All tubes. Great DAC. All systems go. But. My best source is my cable box with the Sounds of The Seasons or Whatever.
I'm serious. With that source I have the biggest soundstage, the most presence, the most, most. Staggering Sound.

Then, I play the best most expensive vinyl, it sounds lifeless. listless. The same Top Dollar Grado IC' from the SOTA TT that used to soundso F ing good thru the Mac SS Pre.

Anything thru the SBox (FLAC) sounds way too bright. With no low end.

At first I thought it was the MMG's. But again with the cable box out to the AVA DAC, the room is alive and the low end is there
.
I mean alive with presence. Staggering shit.

Makes no sense to me. Makes no sense. Have you gone there? Any of you? I'm reaching... I'm.. Not a happy listener.

I am Old, but I have not gone round the bend. I Hope. Or Maybe, I have.

James

Edit: Frank told me that I will need a stronger amp to power the Maggies. And I look forward to that. And a bass driver of some sort would be involved. But the brief movements from the CATV converter stops me in m tracks. Holy Shit, what sound.

been my experience sometimes too - i think the whole vinyl thing is so over-rated -

Photon46 · « **Reply #13 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 07:17 pm »

You might find some of the responses in this Audiogon thread of relevance to your digital situation. Pay attention to Steve N. "Audioengr" responses. He also provides links to other relevant threads on the topic.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?icomp&1385145497&openfrom&1&4#1

Folsom · « **Reply #14 on:** 24 Nov 2013, 10:33 pm »

Do you have any power conditioning?

JLM · « **Reply #15 on:** 25 Nov 2013, 10:39 am »

My first duplicate post, sorry.

Ericus Rex · « **Reply #16 on:** 25 Nov 2013, 12:10 pm »

Quote from: HAL on 24 Nov 2013, 01:02 pm

James,

One thing that might be going on is that the cable box might be using EQ on the feed. I know FM stations do that all the time.

This is probably the case.

Quiet Earth · « **Reply #17 on:** 25 Nov 2013, 03:21 pm »

I think so too.

Most streaming content is compressed and equalized to sound pleasing on a modest system. If it sounds good to you on your big rig, just enjoy it.

charmerci · « **Reply #18 on:** 25 Nov 2013, 05:04 pm »

How does the sound of the cable box compare to the digital out of a CD or Hi Rez player into the AVA DAC?

pansixt · « **Reply #19 on:** 25 Nov 2013, 06:19 pm »

Thanks for all of you who have responded. So here goes.

I agree with the EQ on the CATV feed. It makes perfect sense.

Probably the biggest impact is how revealing this system has become.

Amp tubes are about 1.5 years old. When Frank did my amp. Preamp tubes are just under a year (new preamp with Franks phono stage).
After more listening, vinyl is my second best sounding source. That has never before been the case.
Which leads me to believe there is work needed there. It's been a while.

Oppo DVD used as transport sounds pretty good with a good CD. Optical to DAC. Better than Sbox.

As for the squeezebox, it is feeding my DAC with the same BJ coax as the CATV box. Sounding too digital and flat which
again supports the CATV EQ theory. I have a couple of newer power cords which I am going to re-evaluate first thing, along
with the Bolder modded PS for the Sbox.

I do use a Furman Elite 15 Power Conditioner which doesn't appear to change the system sound for either good or bad.

HAL I will say that vinyl followed by your server when I previewed it were definitely top sound. Never has my digital source sounded as good. Hope to talk to you soon.

My listening room does have issues that I need to address and have put off for too long. This doesn't help considering I can't
get my speaker positions just right until I do.

Conclusion: More work and Less sniveling.