It would be interesting to compare notes on where (as a long term HI Fi nut) my focus should be. I have a good system with Vivaldi front end plus Progression Monoblocs and Wilson Sasha DAWs. Cables are Nordost etc etc.
I stream my music via Tidal and Quobuz as I don’t have the Vivaldi Transport.
I have been really struggling with the emotion of music I stream. The sound is good particularly once the Progressions have warmed up but the sound stage is not brilliant and I don’t feel that the sound is particularly warm or emotionally satisfying. Is it digital v analogue or is it compression from streamed sound or even poor recordings? I just can’t put my finger on why having spent a considerable amount of money that I still search for something as elusive as a natural sound. I can only think that there are so many variables in getting a truly great experience of which the equipment is just one factor. Interested to hear who has cracked it and do you need to own a Varese system to achieve Nirvana😂
Hi John and welcome to our community forum.
I think that I may have some idea of your concerns and how my experiences of similar issues may offer some help. However in order to consider my response further it may help me if I had some idea of the type or types of music that you listen to.
Pete
Did you play around with Mapper 3 yet? Seriously, worth a try to find what you are looking for. Play around with lowering output voltage too. It worked a miracle for me so I share it with you.
PS: BJC Belden 4694R clock cables and Filter 4 for richer tibre.
Speaker placement, room acoustics, power supply, etc.
Yes, that too. I check speaker placement after any change to settings and cables. Sometimes nothing has changed, other times the movement of speakers by a cm can be dramatic.
Hi John,
We mostly use streamed sources (Qobuz or Tidal) in demos at dealers and at shows. Even with standard resolution files we find streaming can provide excellent sound. Your system is also beyond reproach, I have heard those exact components delivering outstanding sound in a number of different rooms around the world so I personally doubt that either the system or the source is the culprit here.
Poor soundstaging points to room and/or setup problems, as alluded to above. I have a combined living/room listening room, which while quite a decent size, doesn’t offer a lot of flexibility in set-up. I have to have a sofa between the speakers and while one long side is lined with books the other is covered only by a large painting so it is very acoustically “asymmetrical”. Not having a lot of scope for physical room treatments I opted to go the Digital Room Correction route and have a custom FIR filter which I run on my Roon Server which evens out the time domain of my room nicely. (see my New Kid on the Block thread for more). The difference it makes to the sound staging is huge, it also significantly reduces my two worst bass nodes which makes the low bass much clearer and improves detail and texture across the whole bass range.
As others have noted, speaker positioning, even changes as small as a half centimeter, can make huge differences. So it might be worth having someone go over the setup of your Sashas and just check they are optimally placed and dialed in.
Finally, you mention a lack of warmth. Warmth is typically associated with even order harmonic distortion, for instance the sound people tend to associate with tube amps. Although dCS equipment is generally known for being pretty tonally neutral, as are d’Agostino electronics (although the Progression M550s generally sound a bit more “fleshed out” than the original Progressions) it may be that you are simply accustomed to a different sound ideal and that a tonal balance on the warm side of neutral is your preference? So maybe it is worth thinking about your sonic ideal, the system or systems that you’ve heard that delivered the ‘warmth’ or ‘emotional satisfaction’ that feel you are missing and how they differed from yours. That might offer a clue.
I agree with Andrew that the speaker + room combination is the place to start. In my own journey (to a now largely Vivaldi based system, but with very modest amp and speakers compared to yours) I have found the synergy of the components - the degree to which their qualities complement each other and build toward the desired sound - is important. With the Puccini generation of dCS kit I found the quality of mains power to make a big difference (I was surprised) and ended up with a balanced power unit that I have used ever since. The right cables are important too, and can move overall sound quality up a few notches. My experience with Nordost is too far in the past to be relevant to you but, on the other hand, I have never heard anyone describe their cables as “warm”.
My own system, within its constraints, is the most natural sounding I have ever owned. It gives me a piano sound, for example, that is consistently enjoyable from a variety of recordings covering many decades. So don’t give up!
Simon,
My journey with dCS was parallel to what you are talking about. I heard a glimpse of my own ideal of sound reproduction coming from the Lina and went after that totality, to make those particular identified characteristics grow stronger by going upstream and down with changes, until it locked in my room. And it did and it is remarkably stable and flattering to anything it plays. Fork time.
It would be fun to start a thread on this dCS-outward approach to a system, if it doesn’t already exist.
Many Thanks Simon
I will try moving the speakers a fraction and check the set up against what Wilson recommend. Their speakers are quite finicky to set up right I believe.
I will also play with the settings on the sub woofer as that may be dominating and coloring the sound to an extent. Unfortunately I am technically ignorant.
You are right about the Nordost. I have the Valhalla2 and they are very bright. Unfortunately I have both the interconnects and speaker cables. Big mistake for the system I have. To replace would be very expensive and having now retired money becomes more important to hold on to….
Thanks very much for your and Andrew’s comments. Unfortunately I have just discovered that my Vivaldi Clock is not waking up when the system is operating. Always something
Simon
Interesting that you should say that gearing your music through the Luba changed everything. What upstream and downstream changes have you made as a result that has now enabled you to achieve Nirvana?
Cheers
John
Hearing your music….