Speaker rattling/echo sound - underpowered?

[Simon_LDT]

Will try to keep this short. Been swapping between my Arcam P1's and the Firebottle AIR and on a particular track (Holy Diver by Dio) there what appears to be some kind of rattling/distorted sound coming from the left speaker during the intro. This only happens when I'm running the AIR. The sound is kind of hard to describe but what it is closest to is tinny laptop speakers when they kind of echo-ey rattle.

Doesn't appear to happen on any other tracks/albums I've tried and it happens even at low volumes (not as prominent but it's there).

Anybody know what this could be?

I've tried the same part of the song on headphones and on my P1's and it goes away. Not sure if it's just a certain frequency being pushed forward which is making it noticable, but being masked on other equipment. The album is not the best recorded, it actually is quite overdriven already (at recording stage) in some songs.

Don't think it's amp clipping and I'm not even pushing it hard at all as I'm near-field listening but it has me worried.

[Arkless Electronics]

Possibly crossover distortion.

[Firebottle]

That sounds very strange as it doesn't happen on any other tracks/albums.

As there is no overall feedback with the AIR it could be a 'resonance' effect with the speaker/crossover and the output impedance of the AIR.
I believe Macca heard a similar effect with his IMFs, though the crossovers were found to need updating.

As it's not apparent on other material I shouldn't worry about it.

:)

[Firebottle]

Possibly crossover distortion.

I think it's unlikely as it doesn't show with other material.

[rikardo1979]

Will try to keep this short. Been swapping between my Arcam P1's and the Firebottle AIR and on a particular track (Holy Diver by Dio) there what appears to be some kind of rattling/distorted sound coming from the left speaker during the intro. This only happens when I'm running the AIR. The sound is kind of hard to describe but what it is closest to is tinny laptop speakers when they kind of echo-ey rattle.

Doesn't appear to happen on any other tracks/albums I've tried and it happens even at low volumes (not as prominent but it's there).

Anybody know what this could be?

I've tried the same part of the song on headphones and on my P1's and it goes away. Not sure if it's just a certain frequency being pushed forward which is making it noticable, but being masked on other equipment. The album is not the best recorded, it actually is quite overdriven already (at recording stage) in some songs.

Don't think it's amp clipping and I'm not even pushing it hard at all as I'm near-field listening but it has me worried.

this happened to me many years ago on old amp. It was as you described it, distortion on particular frequency. This appears only on specific and only song. I still have this CD and use it as reference since as it shows me any issues. There are only vocals in this songs, 3 woman and one man. One of the woman voices has this issue at certain moment. It was always there on that amplifier. So I ended up changing. Never have this on any other one since.
So it may be the amp in your case too.

[Simon_LDT]

'Tis strange. Everything else I've played is fine and sounds normal. I might dig out my old Marantz amp tomorrow and try that too. Could be that the AIR is showing up the poor source material more so than the P1's? The AIR really has some muscle in the bass and lower mid range, the Arcam sounding anaemic in comparison. Maybe the problem frequency is in that region?

[Audio Advent]

Can the reverb part be microphony of the valves?

What happens if you try to isolate the amp on some kind of soft supports?

[danilo]

I'm thinking a Driver issue.
Try swapping left to right speaker wires to test that possibility ?.

[walpurgis]

I'm thinking a Driver issue.
Try swapping left to right speaker wires to test that possibility ?.

At last. A simple and obvious check.

[Simon_LDT]

How could it be a driver issue? The sound is not there on a different amp and all other material is fine.

[Stratmangler]

How could it be a driver issue? The sound is not there on a different amp and all other material is fine.

It's still worth trying, if only to see if you move the fault to the other side.
It's also worth switching the L/R interconnects about at the amplifier end to see if the fault stays on the same side.

[Simon_LDT]

It's still worth trying, if only to see if you move the fault to the other side.
It's also worth switching the L/R interconnects about at the amplifier end to see if the fault stays on the same side.

Will try that tomorrow.

[Simon_LDT]

Swapped the speaker cables over earlier and the sound then moves to the other speaker. Did the same with the interconnects with the same result. Seems to follow. Plugged the Arcam's back in to double check and the issue is not there (if it is, it's hard to hear).

Still haven't heard any problems with other material so I'm not so worried. Just seems a bit strange. I probably wouldn't have noticed it but as I was A/B'ing to compare amps I was listening for every little nuance.