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Thread: Softening of the harsh highs

  1. #1
    Join Date: May 2010

    Location: Vancouver, Canada

    Posts: 2,166
    I'm Alex.

    Question Softening of the harsh highs

    I have a number of LPs in my library that are not the most pleasant thing to listen to. Usually it's the harshness of the highs that makes me get up and take the LP off the turntable. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), there seem to be quite a lot of LPs that sound way harsher than poorly mastered CDs. You sometimes ask yourself (while listening to a badly mastered, badly pressed LP): "Where is that vinyl 'warmth' that people are talking about?"

    Lately I started noticing an interesting phenomenon -- as my turntable upgrades seem to be burning-in, some LPs that I used to cringe putting on started sounding acceptable. The most recent 'discovery' -- Big Brother And The Holding Company "Cheap Thrills". I remember last year listening to it and cringing from the onslaught of hard, harsh screechy highs. Last night I put the same LP on, and lo and behold, the screechiness has all but disappeared, to be replaced with silky, pleasant highs!

    So my puzzlement is: what changed? What modification in one's front-end chain could contribute to this much needed improvement? Is it the tonearm upgrade, or the phono upgrade, or the cable upgrade, or some undefined 'synergy' between components that is now manifesting itself once all the components have settled in?
    Don't you just hate it when you cannot detect where the post ends and a signature line begins?

    Alex.

  2. #2
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

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    I'm Geoff.

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    What cable are you using between the phono stage and amp input?

  3. #3
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

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    I'm Grant.

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    cartridge can do it, if not set right or maybe brand spanking
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

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  4. #4
    Join Date: May 2010

    Location: Vancouver, Canada

    Posts: 2,166
    I'm Alex.

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    Quote Originally Posted by walpurgis View Post
    What cable are you using between the phono stage and amp input?
    Audioquest Red River.
    Don't you just hate it when you cannot detect where the post ends and a signature line begins?

    Alex.

  5. #5
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

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    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by magiccarpetride View Post
    Audioquest Red River.
    That should be fine. I've found some cables after the phono stage can have a bad effect.

  6. #6
    Join Date: May 2010

    Location: Vancouver, Canada

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    I'm Alex.

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    Quote Originally Posted by walpurgis View Post
    That should be fine. I've found some cables after the phono stage can have a bad effect.
    So that bad effect affects all LPs, or only select ones? Because most of my LPs sound fine, but there is a number of the bad sounding ones. I reckon any/some of the components were the culprit for the bad sound, their effect would be audible on all records, not just on some.
    Don't you just hate it when you cannot detect where the post ends and a signature line begins?

    Alex.

  7. #7
    Join Date: Apr 2012

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    Yes that would affect all records played.

    However, some records just don't sound as good as others.

  8. #8
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

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    I'm Grant.

    Default Softening of the harsh highs

    Some might have damage in grooves and this cart currently showing thus up. It's not unusual for this to have happened even with your own records and may have sounded ok with another cart. Stylus profiles are different
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  9. #9
    Join Date: May 2010

    Location: Vancouver, Canada

    Posts: 2,166
    I'm Alex.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by walpurgis View Post
    Yes that would affect all records played.

    However, some records just don't sound as good as others.
    True. What I find surprising (in a pleasant way) is how some of the records that used to sound not so good suddenly come to life after some equipment upgrade. Not all of the bad sounding ones get improved, but some definitely do.
    Don't you just hate it when you cannot detect where the post ends and a signature line begins?

    Alex.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Aug 2008

    Location: Suffolk, UK

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    I'm Paul.

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    I think sometimes too you can have a nasty resonance that doesn’t quite cause obvious sibilance but does make highs a bit aggressive. Changing or modifying anything to do with the arm or cart can fix this. I think sometimes the loading of the cart can cause peaks also.
    ~Paul~

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