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Vocal distortion

Interesting thread this. Few years ago (when live music was still a thing) I had an experience I could not explain.

Cornbury Music festival, great day chilling and listening to the various stages. Last event of the day was Lionel Ritchie (one for my wife). Lovely spot about 10 to 15m from stage. I found the sound painful and could not stay there, was not until I moved well to the side of the stage did my ears get any relief. At the time I put it down to excessive HF, but reading this thread has me thinking.

I know my hearing has been deteriorating slowly, both in terms of picking quiet sounds and high frequencies.
 
Revealing setup here - just listened to the track and although Alison is perfectly fine some deep down background noise can be detected (but that may be my hearing). It does not bother me unlike some songs by Tony Joe White where in the background there is a telephone ringing, a car driving past or a train. Or Queen Greatest Hits II that I find unlistenable due to distortion.

Over the past few years I developped severe hearing loss and it was not until I had a hearing test that I realised how bad it is. Now have the top of the line hearing aids but even those are able to recover only so much.

Hearing loss in not solely the result of exposure to loud music, certain medications can cause this too, e.g. arthritis medication or some antibiotics to mention a few.
 
willie45 said:
I did try it with my Mac mini as well and the result was the same. I suppose I could try it with the MBP unplugged to eliminate the power supply to it but if it is an electrical supply issue the amp might be suffering from it as well.

It's like a faint cracking in the tweeters ...
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willie45 said:
I got round to trying a Sonus Port with my set up and it sounded quite a bit worse than either of the macs I used for streaming. I've decided the issue is not with my Macs.
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Several possibilities here which might have contributed to the crackling/distorted/harsh sound with human voice, and I would like to share my experience. I'll try to make it short.

It all started when I bought some new speakers. In my case, the new speakers are very revealing and will expose any small changes made to the system. Initially the overall sound was a little unnatural with glare and brightness in the treble. I tried a new amp and that resolved most of the issues. In my book, the speaker and amp interface is of utmost importance.There was still a slight glare or hardness with human voice but it didn't bother me much since most of the undesirable effects with the sound reproduction were eliminated with the new amp. Nevertheless, I got a unexpected surprise when I replaced my old laptop with a new one which was used to feed a Chord DAC. I went from a HP Elitebook to a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga. Everything else remained unchanged and it's just the laptop that was replaced. With the new laptop, vocals sound smoother and more natural. The slight glare or hardness was gone.

I believe a laptop is still a compromised solution as a dedicated streamer will likely produce even better results. However, I am currently quite elated with the performance of the system as a whole. Everything in the chain matters from the speakers to the source. If you are convinced that your Mac book is not the culprit to the issue that you are currently facing, you may focus on other areas. Perhaps the new AE500s need some time to run in?
 
In days long past the IBM Thinkpad A31 was the laptop for audio processing. Unfortunately not all modern day laptops have decent audio chips in them. Just get a FocusRite Solo and use that as DA converter. The rest is only bit stream and does not make one iota difference unless there is something wrong with the CPU switching between tasks.
 
MUTTY1 said:
There’s a post or two about how various clinical conditions can cause distortion of high frequencies. I experienced this recently when I had a wax buildup in one ear. So multiple causes. As a designer/manufacturer how do you look after/deal with ageing hearing? This also applies to reviewers of course. They don’t seem to swap horses when they can no longer hear the grasshoppers in the garden any more.
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Good question. From the 1980s onwards I trained my ears to hear very subtle changes in music, which also translates into other things in life, like being able to identify different noises in machines, equipment etc. I use ear protection when around anything that generates noise, especially long or for extended periods of time. That also includes wind noise from motorcycles, cars, bicycles etc, so I look after my ears as they are very valuable to me. I also perform a hearing test every year and log my frequency range. I also go to a lot of music events and concerts, mostly acoustic where amplification isn't involved. This means I can detect very subtle changes in music which helps massively when voicing my electronics, so as to get as close to real sound as possible. Two of my daughters are very musical, one is a professional musician, so I am used to hearing real music, as in voice and acoustic instruments very regularly. This also provides an extremely good reference as my comparison is always against real or live music.
 
Marchbanks said:
It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? I’m very aware my hearing has been on a slow slide for at least a decade, and am perfectly happy to admit there is no point in my spending pots of money on expensive new hifi chasing the finest of fine details any more. But most other old folk here seem to be in denial over this.
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Funny you should mention this. One of my clients is 90 years old. He has a full Tron system and a pair of DeVore 0/96 loudspeakers. Every time he has upgraded a piece of his Hi-Fi he has always called me to report how much better his system is sounding. I am sure his ears cannot hear much above 10KHz, if even that high, but it hasn't stopped him hearing audio improvements and enjoying a higher level of audio fidelity.
 
G T Audio said:
Funny you should mention this. One of my clients is 90 years old. He has a full Tron system and a pair of DeVore 0/96 loudspeakers. Every time he has upgraded a piece of his Hi-Fi he has always called me to report how much better his system is sounding. I am sure his ears cannot hear much above 10KHz, if even that high, but it hasn't stopped him hearing audio improvements and enjoying a higher level of audio fidelity.
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To which I would point at my last sentence and say unpalatable things like ‘expectation bias.’ Your client, on the other hand would tell me that he knows what he hears, and that there is far more to it than a response curve on an audiologist’s chart (cont. p94)
 
Marchbanks said:
To which I would point at my last sentence and say unpalatable things like ‘expectation bias.’ Your client, on the other hand would tell me that he knows what he hears, and that there is far more to it than a response curve on an audiologist’s chart (cont. p94)
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There should always be a high level of trust between the dealer and his/their customer, this has always been the purpose of the HiFi retail/selling chain. A dealer should have a high level of experience and provide advice to help you buy the right product. Some people buy on price, but if subjective performance is being sort, then if you buy from a retail dealer/seller and you are not happy with the performance of what you have bought, you should be able to return it for a refund or an exchange. If you get a bad outcome then broadcasting your experience will help others not fall into the same trap and will highlight dubious dealers to others. I have no doubt that some dealers just want your cash irrespective of whether you get an upgrade or not, but there are still some dealers who take pride in their job and give good advice. At the end of the day as long as the customer/client is happy with the result of the item they have bought then surely that is all that matters...
 
KeithL said:
I remember this on my recording. I have just played it and I agree the chorus is bordering on distorting, probably highlighted because the rest of the album is superb. I don't find it that offensive whereas anything by Florence Welch grates intensely.
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Eat my words..... I really like her video and newish release Free. She seems to have reigned back a little, thankfully.
 
it could be there on the recording. I have a classical vocal work on both cd and LP and both have the same defect on the same track, a harsh ness to the voice. Other tracks with the vocalist are ok.
 
I use my old gaming PC sound from realtek for audio out with my Pro-Ject Headbox sometimes. It is seriously not as bad as lots of people think. I am using pretty good AKG headphones when doing it. I doubt the macbook is the issue.

PS: I am using the worse front panel too.
 
In my experience, MacBooks are just great hi-fi sources. Sound quality never was an afterthought at Apple. Noisy they are most definitely not.
 
G T Audio said:
Funny you should mention this. One of my clients is 90 years old. He has a full Tron system and a pair of DeVore 0/96 loudspeakers. Every time he has upgraded a piece of his Hi-Fi he has always called me to report how much better his system is sounding. I am sure his ears cannot hear much above 10KHz, if even that high, but it hasn't stopped him hearing audio improvements and enjoying a higher level of audio fidelity.
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My father was as deaf as a post - so much so he bought a house at the end of an active RAF station runway. His was the first hi-f I cut my teeth on and it didn't change much. I offered to upgrade his very basic Goldring cart for a better Ortofon and he always turned me down saying he wouldn't hear the difference as he was effectively deaf. One trip to see him I swapped over his cartridge for an Ortofon VMS10 - he reported he could hear any more of his music but that the new cartridge simply made it easier to hear and less tiring to listen to. I've never let anyone use the excuse - I'm too old for... or I'm so deaf I couldn't hear the difference as an 'improvement' often comes in the form of the music making more sense or being easier to hear and follow. DGP
 
Or trial something like Audirvana which shuts out most of the noise in a Mac. Audirvana supports Qobuz, Tidal and a couple of others natively so you could trial one of those too if you’re not a subscriber.

Whatever the merits or demerits, I’ve never heard such distortion from 7 different Macs.
 
Alex S said:
Or trial something like Audirvana which shuts out most of the noise in a Mac. Audirvana supports Qobuz, Tidal and a couple of others natively so you could trial one of those too if you’re not a subscriber.

Whatever the merits or demerits, I’ve never heard such distortion from 7 different Macs.
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Recently been hunting down the noise in a Mac Mini/Audirvana system - galvanic isolation of both Ethernet and USB has made marked SQ improvements. DGP
 
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