Valve amps, great with Jazz, shit with everything else.

[Jac Hawk]

As Adrian has said you need to get your kit on another circuit, to me it sounds like it's on the same circuit as your kitchen / fridge, try different sockets or shoot the fridge, who needs cold beer anyway?

[Pharos]

With regard to the earlier discussion on HF problems being possibly due to our ears, tinnitus and hyperacusis, the following may be helpful.

For several weeks I have been catching a bus at about 0830, and in that bus are children being taken to school. On smaller child shrieks at high volumes, and the spread across the spectrum must be from the mids right up through the top. This is of course a natural sound and can be regraded as a reference for checking coloration at HF. I have heard no such squawking that was not naturally a part of the child's noises, and I have both of the above deficiencies. I do however get it on my system, varied in nature and extent, probably almost certainly the sources.

[anthonyTD]

Good refrence,
And from my own experience, it is not the fundamental frequency that causes the issue, but the Harmonics, which could be a combination of the higher odds!

With regard to the earlier discussion on HF problems being possibly due to our ears, tinnitus and hyperacusis, the following may be helpful.

For several weeks I have been catching a bus at about 0830, and in that bus are children being taken to school. On smaller child shrieks at high volumes, and the spread across the spectrum must be from the mids right up through the top. This is of course a natural sound and can be regraded as a reference for checking coloration at HF. I have heard no such squawking that was not naturally a part of the child's noises, and I have both of the above deficiencies. I do however get it on my system, varied in nature and extent, probably almost certainly the sources.

[Mikeandvan]

Hi all, haven't posted here for a while, but as some of you know I was using an Audio note Soro and an AI S500 modded by AD audio. I compared the two over a period of around 6 months and came to the conclusion there was barely any difference, mind you I can't tell the difference between various tone arms, so there we go. But seriously, there is not much in it quality wise, very slight differences presentation wise, but that could be down to valves. I sold the Soro to very happy Eastern European chap, like me he also used An Js, but was envious of my mint 'old' ones, thanks Steve! Right after selling the Soro my S500 started sounding a bit shit, and I thought was I remembering things right, as I swore they both sounded good! Then it started buzzing a bit, being the jump the gun type I am I brought it back to David at AD audio - luckily fitting this in with my work trips to London, who thought it was a bad resistor first, but then realised it was a bad valve! Something I should have checked first, but there we go, jump the gun as usual. Had it back from David now a few weeks, and just getting a chance to have a good listen to it. I had Gold lion kt77s fitted, but obv one valve was kaput, so installed Chinese JJ el34s for a bit, and it sounded great. Got around to buying another Gold lion, and have been running it in this past week and its now sounding pretty sweet. The bass excels, fully formed and quite luscious, listening to Alexander spence Oar its quite special, United states of america - like hearing it anew. Though The Byrds 'Notorious bird bros' can sound a bit congested and bass heavy in parts. At the moment I mostly play jazz and funk, haven't had chance to play Stones or Kinks type stuff yet, the kind of thing I've always struggled with stridency wise, but just thought I'd post this, as I was thinking about getting another system, but think I'll stick with this now, need to finesse my front end vinyl wise, at the mo using a 1210 gr with standard tonearm and Shure cart - Sc35c, but not sure I've got it set up optimally. Would defo like to try some other carts, but nothing silly expensive. I've done away with all extraneous hifi kit now like mains conditioner, slabs for speakers etc, cannot notice the difference at all. I've got spikes going into floorboards and it sounds fine.

Spot the new valve.................
20210331_190125 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/145505522@N02/]

20210331_193026 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/145505522@N02/]

20210331_190054 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/145505522@N02/]
20210331_190107 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/145505522@N02/]

[AJSki2fly]

Hi all, haven't posted here for a while, but as some of you know I was using an Audio note Soro and an AI S500 modded by AD audio. I compared the two over a period of around 6 months and came to the conclusion there was barely any difference, mind you I can't tell the difference between various tone arms, so there we go. But seriously, there is not much in it quality wise, very slight differences presentation wise, but that could be down to valves. I sold the Soro to very happy Eastern European chap, like me he also used An Js, but was envious of my mint 'old' ones, thanks Steve! Right after selling the Soro my S500 started sounding a bit shit, and I thought was I remembering things right, as I swore they both sounded good! Then it started buzzing a bit, being the jump the gun type I am I brought it back to David at AD audio - luckily fitting this in with my work trips to London, who thought it was a bad resistor first, but then realised it was a bad valve! Something I should have checked first, but there we go, jump the gun as usual. Had it back from David now a few weeks, and just getting a chance to have a good listen to it. I had Gold lion kt77s fitted, but obv one valve was kaput, so installed Chinese JJ el34s for a bit, and it sounded great. Got around to buying another Gold lion, and have been running it in this past week and its now sounding pretty sweet. The bass excels, fully formed and quite luscious, listening to Alexander spence Oar its quite special, United states of america - like hearing it anew. At the moment I mostly play jazz and funk, haven't had chance to play Stones or Kinks type stuff yet, the kind of thing I've always struggled with stridency wise, but just thought I'd post this, as I was thinking about getting another system, but think I'll stick with this now, need to finesse my front end vinyl wise, at the mo using a 1210 gr with standard tonearm and Shure cart - Sc35c, but not sure I've got it set up optimally. Would defo like to try some other carts, but nothing silly expensive. I've done away with all extraneous hifi kit now like mains conditioner, slabs for speakers etc, cannot notice the difference at all. I've got spikes going into floorboards and it sounds fine.

Spot the new valve.................
20210331_190125 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/145505522@N02/]

20210331_190054 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/145505522@N02/]
20210331_190107 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/145505522@N02/]

Great post Mike, lovely to hear that you are happy and system is settling in, it’s looking good. Just small tweaks now to optimise, one thing and a little at a time.

All the best


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mikeandvan]

Cheers Adrian, have been without the Audio note/S500 set up for quite a while, been listening through an Exposure XX which wasn't great to be honest. Realise what absolute joy a proper hifi can bring, though as you say it still needs some tweaking, I still have my 401 which I;ve yet to plinth!

[Bourney]

Phew. You got there in the end. The Js play music, they're not perfect but as all rounders they're superb.
Time to to enjoy the tunes now Mike.
It all looks superb BTW.

[Bourney]

Ps im still loving the AN Ks. They're just that bit tighter and brighter which works in my carpeted and alcoved room. The Js had a bigger richer sound for sure. Its all compromises init.

[Mikeandvan]

Ps im still loving the AN Ks. They're just that bit tighter and brighter which works in my carpeted and alcoved room. The Js had a bigger richer sound for sure. Its all compromises init.

Yep, swapping them suited us both well I think! I found the K's too bass light, so that accentuated the treble, making them too strident for me.

[sailor]

Hi Mike, I started reading your thread a week ago and thought you may resort to a hand grenade to really sort out the problem

I was going to suggest you use a pair of headphones as a reference, which effectively removes the room's acoustic signature and will allow you to hear the rest of your components. Perhaps something for you to consider if you get 'stuck' again.

Your AN speakers are an unusual approach which has some merit. By utilising the room corners no Baffle Step Compensation is required in the XO design. BSC always robs a few dB's from the speakers sensitivity. 3 dB saved is the same as upgrading to an amp of twice the power.

The corner placement also, via boundary reinforcement, enhances bass and permits more perceived bass from flea power amps. It also removes some but not all of the problems associated with strong early refections. It is a brave approach, which any designer worth his salt will understand. The vast bulk of speakers are tending towards easy to market narrow baffle designs, not everybody has corners available nor are they drawn to relatively plain 'unattractive' boxes.

To be clear I am saying you have a good pair of speakers which are worth persevering with.

The graph posted by Martin, which he described as 'the alps' was incorrectly interpreted. That is not the speakers' frequency response, which if it was I agree is hopeless, it is the individual response of each drive unit and it is the summed response that will represent the freq. response.

Marco linked to a review on your speakers. I think he should stick to listening impressions and not try explain the technical side of the design. Below is a copy/paste of where I stopped reading!

"What else, you ask? The spacing between woofer and tweeter is too large to create a cohesive top-to-bottom sound, and mating an 8-inch woofer to a 1-inch tweeter means that the midrange can’t work properly. After all, most of the rest of the industry is of the view that an 8-inch woofer can’t negotiate the upper midrange while also producing ample enough bottom-end"

The photos of your room indicate some acoustic treatment is necessary. You are renting but any treatment installed can be relocated to your next place if you move. Acoustics play a bigger part than most realise. A square room will need more work than a more friendly oblong room with better length/width ratio.