New Speaker Wire

[noimposse]

This really isn't about new speaker wire so to speak, but some things that happened with the addition of new speaker wire.

I picked up some 12 gauge Blue Jeans speaker wire and self terminated it with their Canare Banannas. With the new cables, I took apart the 5.1 setup and hooked the RTI4's up to my pc for pure two-channel. I turned off any kind off pro-logic esque crap on the reciever, turned off the other channels and set the 'listening mode' to Stereo (figured there would be no eq crap). I started to listen to a few of my favorites, Boston, Floyd...and all was pretty good.
Then came some Metallica and things went downhill. I have a hard time explaining the sound, but it was really off to me. It seemed like the bass was really exaggerated for some reason, and I had never had this issue before. When a bass part would come on during a Metallica song the bass seemed to have this kind of 'ring' that accompanied it....as if it were boomy, but kind of different. There really wasn't much punch at all but it just seemed.....muddy(I dont know if that would be a term to use). I tried some of the EQ settings on the sound card and in Itunes but that didnt help much. The only thing that really made any kind of difference was turning the EQ on the reciver on and setting it to one of the presets like 'disco' or 'jazz'.

I though maybe moving the speakers away from the wall a bit would help(they were almost touching the wall) but it didnt do much overall. Basically, I don't know if some decent speaker wire would actually change the sound so much or if some other factor would cause it....or even what to call the issue Im having. Id like to just blame the reciever because I hate it to be honest....but I dont know if thats it.

If you have any kind of thoughts just let me know, it would help out a lot. Thanks.

[Refefer]

There is also a very easy way to test whether or not it's your cabling: why not just put your 5.1 rig back together and play some cds? Seems like a pretty simple way of testing whether or not it's your source(most likely) or the cables (maybe terminated poorly?).

My guess is it's a crappy sound card. I assume you're using an integrated sound card on your comp? Those things really start to buckle sometimes depending on what you're listening to: you gotta remember, they're made for advertisment(buy this mobo with FREE sound), not for sound quality. The first thing I did was upgrade my sound card to something better, and everything improved.

Another thing to note: keep the level on your soundcard constant and control the volume through your integrated. Fiddle with the volume on your computer to find out which level sounds the best and then don't touch it again. Remember, the voltage leaving the speaker/line out might very well fluctuate quite a bit in cheap sound cards. Most likely full volume will be it's "sweet(bittersweet)" spot.

Also, since you're playing mp3/aac/mp4/ogg/flac/etc's, it's also possible that you have a really crappy version of the song. People most often optimize for space verses quality, and when you're playing them through tincans(read: computer speakers) the sound quality loss isn't apparent... but when you check them out through real speakers, becomes very obvious.

Just my thoughts

[danger boy]

well, first off.. it's hard to believe that the new speaker wire you put in only makes Metallica sound crappy.. if it was the speaker wire.. all the music should sound crappy.

I think it's the song itself.. did you say it was from ITunes? So it's an MP3, correct? if so.. then it's the MP3, and not the receiver or speaker wires. Try playing a CD.. not a burned CD, a store bought CD. and report back your findings.

[noimposse]

Well its been a few days and I think it was just sound I wasnt used to hearing. Yes I was listening to mp3's, but the majority of them are lossless. This would be the Metallica songs I was listening to (And Justice For All). I think Im just going to chalk it up to the recording itself for the time being.

I kept the EQ on with the reciever and things dont seem to be as harsh now, so apparently it just cant handle unqualized music. As for the soundcard, it is onboard, but its one of the upperend onboards that Abit was using a year or so back on their higherend 865pe chipset boards. Everything was peachy with the optical out, but analog is a bit off. I think I have an audigy thrown around here that I can try to stuff back in the ole pc and see how that works.

Thanks for the input guys.

[heiney9]

Well its been a few days and I think it was just sound I wasnt used to hearing. Yes I was listening to mp3's, but the majority of them are lossless. This would be the Metallica songs I was listening to (And Justice For All). I think Im just going to chalk it up to the recording itself for the time being.

Thanks for the input guys.

No such thing as a lossless Mp3. Careful not to use Mp3 as a generic term, like Kleenex or Xerox, etc. All Mp3's are compressed and therefore are NOT lossless. I have original Metallica cd's and they all sound like crap. I like Metallica but the recording sounds like it came from a tin can recorded in the bathroom.

H9

[wingnut4772]

Yessss. MP3 is the Devil :p and sounds like Kkrreepp on my system. I would imagine something with as much info as a Metallica 'song' would not fare well.

[EricBurg]

As the others have said...its an MP3 file, which usually results in some compression and sound degradation. I would guess that the better your system the more revealing this problem would be. Secondly, the Metallica recordings of ..And Justice for all and St. Anger leave a lot to be desired. I have noticed that on some small portable radios, these recordings actually make the speakers and plastic enclosure resonate terribly. The bass sounds over exaggerated and has a sort of "ring" to it.

Eric