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Vocal distortion

willie45

pfm Member
Hi,

I recently acquired some new speakers and was initially delighted, and I still am.

The problem is that during my listening I noticed some distorted sound on vocals which I thought might be a problem with these speakers, however I tried with headphones and it's there too. I tried streaming and downloaded music; still there. Now my amp sounds great with most ranges but it's just in vocals I notice this, particular in choruses or were more than one vocal sings, though it's there elsewhere.

I have a MBP 2012 into a Hegel 160 amp,Naim NACA 5 cable wire and AE500 speakers ( though as I mention, it is noticeable on headphones as well.

A good example is "Simple Love" by Alison Krauss where in the chorus it's pretty evident. It could be my ancient ears are going or it could be something else. If any of you listen to that track do you get it as well?

If not: any suggestions?
 
Try a decent dedicated streamer rather than your MBP; borrow one from a friend perhaps?
 
Borrow an amp and try that. Easy to test. Could also be the analogue stage of mbp. If it’s like mine it will have optical out. Again, borrow a dac and see if that sorts the problem.

I would try the amp swap first as it’s so easy to do.
 
I'm no expert so I might be missing something about streaming but I thought macs were already fairly decent sources and I was under the impression that the onboard DAC in my Hegel amp was already pretty good? Is there part of these components that might make my setup a poor choice? I'd be happy to look at sorting out any inadequacies but I don't know which part you mean.

I've also tried both the optical and USB outputs on my MBP with no luck. I was coming to the conclusion that it might be some sort of electrical interference but I have also tried and found the problem is there on music streamed from my phone as well so I'm therefore sure it's not likely to be the amp?

Do you find this with that particular track? It's faint but surely there. I was also wondering if it was something to do with streamed music so I downloaded the track and it was still there.
 
…found the problem is there on music streamed from my phone as well so I'm therefore sure it's not likely to be the amp?

From everything you’ve said the amp is the only constant in the replay chain, so, assuming there is a problem in the kit doesn’t that rather point at the amp??
 
Try plugging your source into a different input on the amp before doing anything else. If that solves it, it's a problem with one of the inputs on the amp. If it still occurs, try playing a different source completely, if you have one. If that solves it, it's your source. If it still occurs after that, try a different amp. If that fixes it, there's a problem with the amp. If it still occurs, it's probably the speakers.
 
Hi,

I recently acquired some new speakers and was initially delighted, and I still am.

The problem is that during my listening I noticed some distorted sound on vocals which I thought might be a problem with these speakers, however I tried with headphones and it's there too. I tried streaming and downloaded music; still there. Now my amp sounds great with most ranges but it's just in vocals I notice this, particular in choruses or were more than one vocal sings, though it's there elsewhere.

I have a MBP 2012 into a Hegel 160 amp,Naim NACA 5 cable wire and AE500 speakers ( though as I mention, it is noticeable on headphones as well.

A good example is "Simple Love" by Alison Krauss where in the chorus it's pretty evident. It could be my ancient ears are going or it could be something else. If any of you listen to that track do you get it as well?

If not: any suggestions?


I listened to the track and there is no distortion here. I suspect it is your amp. However, when hearing "starts to go" it is not unknown to hear distortion on strident vocals like Ms Krauss sings here and on many of her songs. It is a sign of hyperacusis, where louder noises, usually in the upper frequencies, cause discomfort and distort slightly. A good test for hearing is to try whistling in the upper registers - if you hear a pure whistle all is good, if you hear a little distortion then it means your hearing has been affected. It's a warning too to protect your ears in future from loud noise.
 
I listened to the track and there is no distortion here. I suspect it is your amp. However, when hearing "starts to go" it is not unknown to hear distortion on strident vocals like Ms Krauss sings here and on many of her songs. It is a sign of hyperacusis, where louder noises, usually in the upper frequencies, cause discomfort and distort slightly. A good test for hearing is to try whistling in the upper registers - if you hear a pure whistle all is good, if you hear a little distortion then it means your hearing has been affected. It's a warning too to protect your ears in future from loud noise.

My left ear blocked up recently. After ten days treating with ear drops all is good but I did notice some high frequency distortion on occasion. In fact had some quite illogical effects. Despite considerable loss of hearing on the left I was still getting a decent middle image! Anyways, not to be dismissed: even posh ear drops are only £4ish;)
 
It is a sign of hyperacusis, where louder noises, usually in the upper frequencies, cause discomfort and distort slightly. A good test for hearing is to try whistling in the upper registers - if you hear a pure whistle all is good, if you hear a little distortion then it means your hearing has been affected. It's a warning too to protect your ears in future from loud noise.

I have a feeling you might be onto something here. I have very acute hearing and even into my old age have been able to hear high-pitched frequencies all the way down to about 12 Hz. It's a pain because noises that don't bother other people can sometimes get on my nerves.

However
, there's a dip around 700Hz - know this because when I was training to be a piano tuner, they did a hearing test on me as part of the selection process and they told me about my dip in hearing. It didn't affect my ability to hear music so they let me in but said it would be wise to have it followed up. I had played in a few bands at that time ( this was many years ago and in the days when you stood in front of a loud amp) and when I followed it up at an audiologist they put that down to the likely cause being that.

It hasn't bothered me again but now I'm knocking on a bit it's probably making its presence felt. Also probably because I was listening more intently than usual while testing the new speakers I latched onto it when I wouldn't normally have noticed.

It's a bugger this getting old
 
“It's a bugger this getting old”
It is indeed.
Have you had COVID? I have and it buggered up my hearing for about 14 months, I became very sensitive to high frequencies and heard distortion e.t.c e.t.c. Didn’t clear up until I had another respiratory virus (heavy cold, no idea if it was COVID as I didn’t test, just isolated) and it sort of cleared everything out and is now back to (almost) normal.
 
“It's a bugger this getting old”
It is indeed.
Have you had COVID? I have and it buggered up my hearing for about 14 months, I became very sensitive to high frequencies and heard distortion e.t.c e.t.c. Didn’t clear up until I had another respiratory virus (heavy cold, no idea if it was COVID as I didn’t test, just isolated) and it sort of cleared everything out and is now back to (almost) normal.

Hi Matt, no I haven't had it as far as I know, but at the moment I have a chesty cold so that might be a factor.
 
Hmmm. Interestingly I tried again a few minutes ago and there was no distortion. I'm figuring it might be an issue with electrical interference either on wifi or on the mains which reduces at night. I'm glad my hearing isn't as bad as I feared initially but mystified as to what could be causing this.
 
I thought I had permanently lost some hearing in my left ear but it seemed it’s just odd stuff going on as that ear was being slowly unblocked. I’ve got reduced canals because of surfing all year round for ten years but that’s not a price I regret.
 
Hmmm. There's definitely something odd with my set-up. This distorted sound comes and goes and is sometimes very obvious on tracks. I'm wondering if it's some sort of electrical issue in my mains?
 
Hmmm. There's definitely something odd with my set-up. This distorted sound comes and goes and is sometimes very obvious on tracks. I'm wondering if it's some sort of electrical issue in my mains?
Can you listen to music on headphones via your phone? Maybe if you could do that at one of the times you hear distortion via headphones on the main rig.....
 
Hmmm. There's definitely something odd with my set-up. This distorted sound comes and goes and is sometimes very obvious on tracks. I'm wondering if it's some sort of electrical issue in my mains?

As I suggested above, it could well be noise on the output from your MBP. Laptops are quite 'noisy' devices; sub optimal as a streaming source, imo&e. Try a dedicated streamer.
 


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