I have reinstalled Snowmass again. Snowmass certainly has a lot of improvements, no doubt about it. But I have trouble with my voices. I certainly do not have soft voices- It throws something on which disturbs my ears, it reminds me of what I do not like about Hartbeth 40.2. It is completely wrong when the strength of the voice rises in strength. It seems as if the music is shouting when I turn right up. Is there anyone they just want to send me some suggestions for music in hearing.
Thanks to Ted and the whole PS team
and as always no installation problems etc. more love Denmark
There have been three Snowmass versions (3.00, 3.04, 3.05), and they each sound a little different. You might try a different Snowmass release, 3.00 and 3.05 are the more popular ones.
Thanks for your input. I prefer DS as pre. but it is so lame that it cannot play high enough on RCA (Unbalanced) there is difference in sound when using XLR (Balanced) yes and I am not thinking about the extra DB you have here. When there is a difference in the sound of the RCA / XLR, it is a sign to me of a poor construction of the amplifier. There are some of us using a servo system where you can only drive with RCA.
I have learned to live with the flaws and defects my PS audio equipment has … and I have all my equipment faults. More love Denmark.
In the night I have formatted my memory card again. I always buy new for my updates. I had the following bugs in the night. then the then so famous Bridge II disappeared. so I have installed again and again, etc. I have had all signal cables out as the last attempt. Now it seems the total strange sound has disappeared I got on the first attempt. I have not been able to play loudly because the pharmacy sleeps. But at low strength, I no longer have the strange sound I got out of the first attempt. It is good for Snowmass 3.05 to survive on my system. Now the system warms up and I will test it when the wife / children have been thrown at work and school.
I found.a way around this using an excellent device by Decware called the ZBIT and ran the DSD into the ZBIT and then into my amp for a spell. Quite satisfactory.
I completely agree. When I used my DSDjr to drive my power amps directly it was sad compared to using my preamp. Now the DAC is always at 100% output wise and sounds so much better.
Very strange as this is not my experience or that of the Sterepohile reviewer that reviewed the preamp and I quote ’ With or without the preamp, this system of PS Audio Electronics-BHK Signaure Preamp, Directstream DAC and BHK Mono 300s delivered perhaps the best sound I’ve heard in my listening room, with deep solid bass: delicate pristine highs: and vivid midrange.’
This is a very interesting topic. I have had a similar experience which I can detail but I’m not sure how much it will help you solve your problem.
Some background: I regard voice recorded with minimal processing, certainly with no compression, as one of the prime test cases for evaluating hi-fi equipment - particularly loudspeakers. I started out with Celef (now Proac) Mini-professionals in 1973 later moving on to Spendor, Audio Physic and now Harbeth (SuperHL5+ Anniversary edition). Part of my reason for changing from the Celef speakers was that at that time they had a harsh treble but I’d guess this may not be true now. Spendor (professional series SP1, SP2 etc) and all Harbeth models have a BBC-heritage frequency response: they measure very flat on axis but in-room the frequency response slopes down gently at high frequencies. I found this characteristic made speech reproduction very natural
So my first comment would be that I doubt the Harbeth speakers are where your problem lies, rather the reverse - many (most?) current speakers have a more prominent (exciting??) treble than the Harbeth models.
To answer your question about suggestions for music. I recommend that you start with a simple recording of a voice you know; I use Antony Hopkins intro to the BBC dramatisation of Under Milkwood. Next I suggest a small group of classically-trained singers. Gothic Voices have made many recordings of early music. These are very useful test cases as they include monody (i.e. a single vocal line) and part-songs with 1 to 4 parts. Do the single voice recordings sound correct tonally over a range of volume settings? If not I’d guess you are pushing your amp beyond its linear range.
Things become more difficult to judge with multi-voice recordings. I find that as the number of singers and playback volume are increased I hear a quiet ‘fuzz’ in the sound! I’ve checked this out on my 2 entirely separate hifi systems and it is there with both, so maybe it is related to my slightly degraded hearing at higher frequencies. I recollect hearing a similar effect at live choral events. I can’t prove this but I wonder if there is an intermodulation effect between loud voices i.e. not the direct harmonies written and desired by the composer but the sum and difference frequencies of there sung notes. The summed frequency ‘note’ (sometimes also desired by the composer) at a high frequency may not be so well produced by a hifi system as occurs live. I’ve heard this effect also with recordings of the harpsichord having ‘busy’ loud treble passages.
To put all this in the context of Snowmass I have evaluated most of the previous releases from Yale onwards. With Snowmass I noted a major improvement in the reproduction of voices, in particular bass and tenor. This was partly in timbre but also in definition and separation from other performers. Interestingly, and probably relevant to you experience, before Snowmass I found soprano voices seemed to ‘spread’ uncomfortably at the highest notes. This largely disappeared when I upgraded to Snowmass.
Perhaps it is worth adding that I have found that general system improvements (power supplies, grounding, electrical isolation, switching off or removal of local wireless devices) all improved vocal reproduction (and much else), presumably because of the lowered noise floor.
I have seen all these videos. I am not looking to argue with you and get accused of trolling again on this forum! I have my opinion and you have yours! Nowhere does he say in the video that the soundstage is lacking. leave it at that!
