2. amps-preamps
  3. 1234401871

Distortion on piano recordings? Advice appreciated

I'm not sure exactly where to put this, but I guess amplification is as good a place as any.

For several months now I've been occasionally noticing distortion (fuzz) in my system, only on some piano recordings. It seems to happen when they get loudest, or when the note attacks seem most intense even if not that loud. It's only at mid-high frequencies (not lows or extreme highs). Seems to be the front channels only-- I plugged my surround speakers into the front channels and heard it then too.

In that time I've changed all my components (amp, processor, CD) except the speakers, and I have tested other pairs of speakers and interconnects with the same result, though it's perhaps less obvious with RCA ICs than with XLRs.

I'm pretty sure I've also swapped out speaker cables too, though not lately. I'll try different speaker cables again this weekend, but assuming it isn't them, could it be a room node? I don't know that much about nodes, but I thought they were usually problems at much lower frequencies. Can this be this severe in the higher ranges too?

Is there anything else I'm forgetting?

System:
Halcro MC-70 Amp
Classe SSP-600 Pro
Hyperion HPS938 speakers
Aurum Cantus Leisure for surrounds
NAD M5/ Parasound players
Audioquest ICs and cables
apspr

Showing 1 response by martykl

martykl
3,578 posts
 
Your "loudest" "most intense attack" and mid-frequency observations suggest that this might be overloaded mikes on a close miked recording. IME, you usually tend to hear this as hardness in the presence region or (possibly) distortion in the bass, but if you really screw it up, I guess you can get distortion even that high up. Recording piano is a bitch.

BTW, if the piano goes "hard" (i.e., a grand begins to sound like an upright or a new upright begins to sound like an old upright) in this range before the distortion sets in, it's fairly likely that the recording is your problem.

Marty
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