Working out the bugs

Been having consistent trouble with my speaker system and can't seem to track down the problem. Pulled the new Cavalli amp and headphones into service to help isolate the problem. Good news is there's nothing, NOTHING wrong with the turntable, preamp, DAC or computer. I think I'm gonna sit by the turntable for a bit with the headphones... it's glorious.
Now it's either my speaker amps, speaker cable or speakers

 

That shot looks so inviting....I can totally chill out there to some nice tunes. Think about getting a clamp for that table...try to get the michell reverse clamp.
http://www.needledoctor.com/JA-Michell-Record-Clamp

 

Shaizada: the great corrupter - watch out for this man, he will somehow get you to spend every last penny you have on this crazy hobby!

 

You really should get a clamp though, its a no brainer upgrade. The improvement is likely to be more than a new cable or something =)

 

What kind of problems are you having with the 'table and the speakers?

 

LOL, where do I start? I fear my main trouble are my 58 year old ears or the thing between them!

I noticed about 7 months ago that I was getting an annoying peaky ice pick in the brain at around 6-700 Hz. I thought it was digital glare, and indeed I noticed I was disliking almost every digital sourced system I heard. I went to the Newport audio show and thought I heard the same problem in all the digital sourced rooms there. But I'm very suspicious of my own impressions, they are highly influenced by my very active mind. I will say though, that the only good sounding systems there were from very expensive analogue sources and I've never had a bias towards analogue, I very much wanted to make digital work as my only source, so...

Then our friend Shaizada here, corrupted me and I find myself waist deep in vinyl. And I'm still not liking my system! There were several issues just getting the turntable integrated into the system, mostly dealing with resonances and a nasty airborne feedback problem that is mostly gone. My cart is an AT-OC9ML/II and it seems a little tilted up towards the high end and sounding just a bit brittle and that peaky ice pick seems to come and go again. It definitely has a different quality with the analogue, and not as awful. But it's still there.

So now listening to everything through the headphones, I can't hear any of these problems, so it has to be in my active crossover, amps, speaker cables, speakers or room acoustics. So that's where I'm at with it. It's taking me a long time to track it down because I lose my objectivity so fast and then don't know what i'm hearing, it's just weird...

Thanks for listening to me Doc, you can send me the bill at your convenience...

 

It's when he asks you how you feel about all this that you know the bill will go sky high!

This probably belongs on one of the hearing or hearing-damage threads, but I do sympathise because I recognise that ageing hearing makes objectivity even harder. For the past several years, I have been forced to recognise that the frequency response of my ears is now so rolled off that I am completely unable to pass judgement on sound as being flat or transparent. I no longer have anything that I can measure that against. The best I can do is EQ to taste.

 

Let's do this one step at a time. First thing, cart setup. I'm working under the assumption that your headphone rig is working sympathetically with the coloration presented by the 'table. I own a OC9ML/II, though I'm not using it at the moment. It's a bit of a tail-dragger. Meaning, the back of the cartridge is slightly lower than its front. The cart also likes some loading, the value dependent on the phono stage. 100 Ohm is a good place to start. Once the cart is re-aligned, this should substantially diminish the sonic symptoms you describe when listening through your main system. It would be interesting to hear how the change presents itself for headphone listening. We'll look into the feedback issue next, should the above work satisfactorily. If not, we'll look into other options. Can you post a pic of the front of the structure supporting the 'table?

 

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

Thanks Shaffer, I'm not sure I understand what you meant by "...the front of the structure..." Do you want me to take a head-on shot of the cart or are you referring to the plinth?

 

Sadly, yes.

But there is still plenty of musical pleasure left and, perhaps oddly, I can still tell good sound from bad sound!

 

Sorry, I was referring to the cabinet/rack that the 'table sits on. Having a pic can help us isolate the 'table from physical and airborne vibrations.