I bought my first hi end audio system. Played, so far, some Redbook cds. On my speakers, I think I am hearing improvement as some time goes on. My room is horrible for room acoustics...as bad as it gets...so I am going to address that with my Dspeaker antimode 2.0 soon.
But then I switched to my headphone unit, of which I have a Questyle CMA 600i headphone amp/dac. So room acoustics have no import here. I plugged in my Sennheiser hd6xx headphones, popped in some Redbook cds, and man it just sounds rather muffled to me. I don't hear crisp details and nice separation of instruments. I am not wowed. I have a good system here, every component getting good reviews. So, does it need break in? Is it terrible cd recordings? Or, would I realize better sound if I went cd transport - dac - headphone amp? Right now it's cd transport - dac - preamp - headphone amp.
Yes be careful. Hi-end means muffled and euphonic old school sound to many audiophiles - easily distinguished from modern accurate sound.
There is a happy medium between warm euphonic sound and accuracy and clarity - you just need to find that - only experimentation and lots of listening will do.
FWIW - if it doesn’t sound excellent out of the box then it never will - don’t kid yourself. Audio memory will adjust (you will forget what good system sounds like) and you will learn to accept the less than ideal sound after many hours of conditioning (that is break in for you).
@shadorne I can’t quite fully agree with your statement "FWIW - if it doesn’t sound excellent out of the box then it never will". Some loudspeakers i’ve heard have sounded bright, closed in and rather flat out of the box, only to smooth out, open up and sound musical after break in. Just sayin’. Though I think your statement is true of some head-fi, particularly IEM's.
It depends on the speaker design and manufacturing I guess and whether they are broken in at the factory QC where some manufacturers do extreme stress tests.
I have a pair of Sennheiser HD600s. I recall finding them muffled sounding and lacking high end extension when new. Dozens and dozens of hours later and a cable upgrade (to Senn 700 or 800 cable?) they sound much better. Have to say though, they don’t have the sparkle of the AKG550s but then the AKGs are light on bass compared to the Senns. After time for break in, consider a Schiit Loki for equalization if things don’t improve to your total satisfaction.
Something is wrong. You should be enjoying crisp clear sound.
You might want to further describe your system (cd transport - dac - preamp - headphone amp). You say you have a dac/headphone amp. You should be able to connect your cd transport to the digital in on your dac/headphone amp and plug your headphones in and be good to go. You don’t need to take the analog out and run it through a preamp.
If you’re not having some kind of connection problem, get back to whoever you bought your gear from and seek advice on your system and try to isolate which item isn’t working properly. If you can’t find the problem, return the gear.
1) Wells innamorata power amp 2) Jolida Fusion Preamp 3) PSB Imagine T3 speakers 4) Simaudio 380D DAC 5) PS Audio Perfectwave CD transport 6) Questyle CMA 600i headphone amp/dac 7) Musical surroundings nova phonomena phono preamp 8) Lumin D1 streamer 9) Melco N1A network digital library 10) Project Xtension 10 turntable 11) JT Dynamic Power 4 rail power supply 12) Dspeaker antimode 2.0 dual core room correction 13) Sonos connect ZP90 streamer 14) Shunyata MPC-12C power conditioner 15) Focal elear, final audio design sonorous VI, Sennheiser hd6xx, hifiman he4xx, Beyerdynamic dt880 headphones 16) Virtue audio interconnects, JT Dynamic Power power cords
That is everything that is pertinent. I just started listening, and just the cd transport with just my speakers and my Sennheiser headphones. Looking forward to streamer and turntable, as well as other headphones, but I was rather surprised at the lack of any wow factor when I put on these headphones. Tomcy6....so, my current chain is cd transport-dac-preamp-headphone amp/dac. You think that could be it? So do away with the dac and preamp and it could make a big difference? I am a truck driver and currently out on road...but can put this to the test this weekend
Oh, I think maybe cd transport-dac-preamp because if I go directly from cd transport to headphone amp then I can't listen to speakers without having to disconnect interconnects all the time?
I am going to try this, eliminating the preamp in the chain, but one would think that if you have a good preamp that the SQ would be quite good. I am trying to figure this out...perhaps my ears require more than what the Sennheiser delivers. I don't know. Hard to imagine, since they get good reviews
Some things do improve with break in, IMO. Speakers, headphones, pretty much anything mechanical.......even electronics to some degree. Have to agree with shadorne to some extent though. If it sounds bad now, it may......or may not, sound better in a week..........To some degree I to believe that we mentally "adjust" to what we hear and see. Over time we begin to accept what we hear as normal.
Were it me and it's not, I'd keep everything powered up and playing continuously for a few days, even at low volume, just to break things loose and let them get settled. Sounds like you put out some real money here, so if things don't get markedly better pretty soon I'd be having a heart to heart with the dealer.
You've gone the headphone route, so yeah, that takes your room out of the equation. If in a few days the phones start to sound pretty good, but the speakers still sound bad, that leaves two things. Either you bought a defective piece of gear that's dragging your whole system into the mud, or your room really is THAT bad..........which is addressable for far less than you probably paid for your hardware.
FWIW, I just did a pretty extensive room treatment and the difference was so great that I honestly barely recognized my own system and music, it made that much difference. Seems like you may have other issues though..................good luck and regardless of price, anything can be bad out of the box
My audio room is my bedroom. There are so many things in the way, and so much restriction for speaker placement, that I purchased the Dspeaker correction device. That will help the speakers which sound good but aren't wowing me yet. Headphones, well maybe some more breaking in, or maybe taking the preamp out of the chain. I am not sure what to feel about the concept of me "adjusting to the sound". I remember a few decades ago listening to high end equipment on vinyl and feeling wowed immediately. Thank you for all advice
You’ve got a lot of equipment there and it looks like good quality gear, so if your system just sounds bad, something isn’t working properly.
I can’t really tell you what the optimal setup would be, but I would set up each part of your system (i.e. cd, lp and headphone) one at a time, as simply as possible. Your cd spinner to your preamp/dac to your amp to your speakers only, in order to try and isolate any piece of gear that might be causing a problem or, in another way, finding out which components are working correctly. In setting up your headphone system, just go from cd spinner to headphone amp/dac to headphones. Leave the preamp/dac out.
Try that and see what happens and let us know if it helps. You can eventually get everything hooked up together, but with all those connections and components it's easy to get something hooked up wrong when you're connecting it all up at once.
How big is your bedroom? You don’t have those speakers on each side of your bed do you? You're going to have to clear out some room for your speakers to work. I don't think room correction will be much help until you get some open space between you and the speakers.
Tomcy6....the speakers don't sound bad, in fact they sound "good" to me but not WOW. Maybe it's the room? For the speakers, the chain for cd is cd-dac-preamp-Dspeaker room correction (haven't calibrated yet)-power amp-speakers. On the headphones, if I go from cd directly to headphone amp/dac then I don't think I can use any other source for headphones unless I switch interconnects...what a pain. But I could take the preamp out of the chain. The headphones are the worst experience so far...though I haven't listened to any of my other headphones other than the Sennheiser so far.
The bedroom is a standard bedroom, not the master. Maybe 12' x 14' is a decent guess. Clutter everywhere...bed in middle, bookshelves, desk of drawers, etc. The only place for speakers is in opposing corners in room on each end of bookcases, which places them in small corners of the room...inbetween the wall and end of bookcase. No room to bring out from wall (bed in way) more than maybe 1 foot. In one corner, after bringing speaker maybe 10 inches from wall the front of the speaker is only a foot or so from the bed. It's bad. However, trying to do the best I can
Tomcy6...I am thinking you are undoubtedly right regarding the effects of the room for the speakers. That is probably it. I am, however, quite perplexed about my Sennheiser headphones. I would think with this equipment, I should be experiencing something musically quite pleasurable. But again, I haven't taken the preamp out of the equation yet. There isn't much to consider, am I right, when it comes to the headphones. Either they play well or not I suppose. Other than possibly the preamp, I think I have it hooked up correctly
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