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Why are the vocals on some records hidden behind the music on my system?

Help! I am new to this forum, but have been into audio for over 45 years and have never had this problem before. I was lucky enough to come into some money and decided to use some of it to up grade my system for the first time in almost 30 yrs. The system consists of McIntosh MC-402, McIntosh C-100, McIntosh MCD-500, VPI HW19 MKIII, Soundsmith Aida, Furutech Ag-12 phono cable, Furutech silver head shell wires, Furutech interconnects and Furutech speaker cables (yes I like Furutech) and Raidho XT-3 speakers. Now on some albums the vocals are buried behind the music and you have a really hard time hearing the singer? Not all albums are voiced in this manner but enough that it is bothersome. I have a large dedicated man room (24 x 27) with minimum treatment. CDs sound just fine so I feel that it is with the phono preamp in the C-100? I have moved the speakers 100s of times and have them at 5' 8" apart and 8' 1" to the focal point and the soundstage is good and the vocals are better, but you still have to really listen hard to hear certain vocals on some albums. Most of my albums are 30 to 50 years old and have been cleaned with a sonic cleaner (best thing ever imho). Even some of my new heavy vinyl has this problem.
scooby2do

Showing 2 responses by uberwaltz

uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Sounds like a nice find OP, sometimes it is so easy to chase around in ever decreasing circles only to realise you then have missed the  blindingly obvious...lol.
It is something I never even thought of asking but now you state it, I have just about always run my vtf at the top end of the spec for the cartridge used as it does seem to "dig deeper" into the music.
Of course all the time spent on carefull setup has not gone to waste for sure!
Now sit back, relax and enjoy the music!
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
@effischer 
Are you saying you adjust the vta on every single lp you play?
If so you must be doing that until you like the sound correct?
If so is that not exactly what the op has been doing to set it up originally?
I know there are variances in record thickness but adjusting for every single record played sounds just a little obsessive to me and for myself would tend to spoil the experience of just sitting and listening to the music (well for 20 or so minutes at a time anyways...lol)
No criticism at all but it does sound like your method of adjusting "on the fly" for the sound is the same as the ops initial setting, which has been somewhat criticized by others here.
I set once with a medium weight record and leave, I hardly have any 180gm records as most of those are remasters or modern issues which just do not have the same appeal to my tastes again imho only!
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