I think there are multiple causes that can cause brightness issues:
- acoustics; too high reverberation times/too many reflections or uneven frequency absorption causing an imbalance of acoustic energy, irt different frequency ranges, present in a room.
- placement of loudspeakers and listening position; the frequency response is different in every cm2 in a room. Loudspeakers usually need to be as free standing as possible. The amount of toe-in can help shift the balance between direct and reflected sound somewhat
- noise and distortion; from "bad" tweeters/midrange drivers, "dirty" electricity, noisy or jittery sources
Of course all loudspeakers have differing characteristics. Some are simply more musically sounding than others. I've always seen PMC loudspeakers being characterized as being honest/ruthless. I believe the brand has it's roots in the pro/studio world and I believe it's a good thing studio engineers use monitoring gear that colours as little as possible so this could influence their 'voicing'. It could be that what they do is simply not to your taste.
PS. I strongly disagree that acoustic optimizations kill life or air. It's all about the right balance. If you overdo the absorption you'll get a very dry sounding room dulling music reproduction coming from loudspeakers that are voiced for in room usage. There's no real exact concensus on the ideal reverberation times for stereo music reproduction but I often see 0.5s mentioned and 0.3s for home theaters.
Also don't forget that one has to adjust to lower reverb times when he has listened to music in too reverberant rooms all his life. To get a sense of what acoustics do just bring a portable loudspeaker 9even an iPhone or iPad will do) with you to different rooms in your house, be sure to include your bedroom and bathroom.
PS2: I also disagree that a better and more resolving system will make many recordings unlistenable. Of course a better system will make it easier to differentiate between recordings but IMO a clean, non (as little as possible) distorting system (including room and anything related to music reproduction) will make every recording sound better and enjoyable except maybe for the rare, really bad ones. I do think that it's extremely difficult and often even expensive to find the right balance between transparancy and musicality for the really critical listener. For me personally: it's cost me a lot of money, time (around 10 years) and effort to reach my goals but I'm very happy with the results I've reached thus far using what I believe are honest and transparent/little colouring components. And really I've had my fair share of harshness/brightness issues as well.
- acoustics; too high reverberation times/too many reflections or uneven frequency absorption causing an imbalance of acoustic energy, irt different frequency ranges, present in a room.
- placement of loudspeakers and listening position; the frequency response is different in every cm2 in a room. Loudspeakers usually need to be as free standing as possible. The amount of toe-in can help shift the balance between direct and reflected sound somewhat
- noise and distortion; from "bad" tweeters/midrange drivers, "dirty" electricity, noisy or jittery sources
Of course all loudspeakers have differing characteristics. Some are simply more musically sounding than others. I've always seen PMC loudspeakers being characterized as being honest/ruthless. I believe the brand has it's roots in the pro/studio world and I believe it's a good thing studio engineers use monitoring gear that colours as little as possible so this could influence their 'voicing'. It could be that what they do is simply not to your taste.
PS. I strongly disagree that acoustic optimizations kill life or air. It's all about the right balance. If you overdo the absorption you'll get a very dry sounding room dulling music reproduction coming from loudspeakers that are voiced for in room usage. There's no real exact concensus on the ideal reverberation times for stereo music reproduction but I often see 0.5s mentioned and 0.3s for home theaters.
Also don't forget that one has to adjust to lower reverb times when he has listened to music in too reverberant rooms all his life. To get a sense of what acoustics do just bring a portable loudspeaker 9even an iPhone or iPad will do) with you to different rooms in your house, be sure to include your bedroom and bathroom.
PS2: I also disagree that a better and more resolving system will make many recordings unlistenable. Of course a better system will make it easier to differentiate between recordings but IMO a clean, non (as little as possible) distorting system (including room and anything related to music reproduction) will make every recording sound better and enjoyable except maybe for the rare, really bad ones. I do think that it's extremely difficult and often even expensive to find the right balance between transparancy and musicality for the really critical listener. For me personally: it's cost me a lot of money, time (around 10 years) and effort to reach my goals but I'm very happy with the results I've reached thus far using what I believe are honest and transparent/little colouring components. And really I've had my fair share of harshness/brightness issues as well.
PS Audio P3, Shunyata ΞTRON Alpha Digital and HC/Furutech power cables, Paul Hynes SR7EHD-MR4, DIY Roon Server & Roon Endpoint running AudioLinux Headless, Phasure Lush^2 USB cable, Audioquest Diamond RJ/E ethernet, Uptone Audio etherREGEN, Mutec MC-3+ USB, Shunyata ΞTRON Anaconda Digital XLR AES/EBU, Devialet Expert 250 Pro CI, Nordost Tyr Reference LS cables, Von Schweikert VR-5 SE Anniversary Edition, Anti-Mode Dual Core 2.0, JL Audio Fathom F112. More detail here.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
