A Confused streaming system - Mutec / SOtM Ultra

[Confused]

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” - Einstein

If take two violins they can sound different but frequency would measure the same. Many factors cannot be seen in a simple frequency curve, or maybe cannot be measured at all.


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+1 absolutely. It’s what happens in your brain that counts so what you have reported regarding brightness you don’t like is probably absolutely correct...... its possibly oonly specific and relevant to you.

How about getting a few astute mates around to listen with you. I have often found that really helpful. I have several friends who seem to hear things as I do. Their input, over the years has been invaluable.

Yes, I agree.  Oddly enough, I have one friend who tends to hear things I do not.  This can be particularly useful, and often when they have pointed out what they are hearing, I can then spot it myself.  OK, some might argue that this kind of input might just be feeding expectation bias, but what I find is that you might be focusing too much on one aspect yourself, and therefore completely missing something else.

As for @zdenes point, I think it does relate perfectly to what I have been experiencing lately.  I have been perceiving increased treble when none is there, or at least none can be measured.  Plus I think it is not just me, remember I posted about Steve Plaskin review of the Sonore Signature Rendu versus the SOtM ultra bundle where he refers to the microRendu's 'somewhat dark sound'.   I have compared the mR to the SOtM bundle and I too found the mR to sound "darker", but in terms of frequency response I have measured to two and found them more or less identical.  So something else is going on, I am not saying it cannot be measured, but it would certainly need something very sophisticated indeed to measure it, and then be very difficult to understand the results.

As an interim update, I have definitely been suffering from some kind of new kit neurosis combined with some kind of psychoacoustic effect regarding the treble.  Just knowing that the SOtM kit measures the same treble response as the mR has allowed me to relax about this issue and focus on other things, and all of a sudden I am realising just how good the SOtM kit is.  @thumb5 was right about the psychoacoustics and "brain reboot", it just took some hard measurements for my brain to react.

In fact the system is sounding mighty fine today, I am really enjoying it and only now discovering what the SOtM kit adds to the musical presentation.

One other thing yesterday, when pulling the kit out of the rack yesterday to swap the mR back in for measurements, I noticed that the XLR cable from the Devialet to the Mutec was not properly engaged in the Mutec's socket.  I have done a lot of cable swapping over the last couple of weeks so I am not sure when I did this.  Maybe this has helped to cure the treble issue?  Maybe an extra bit of burn in has helped?  I have genuinely put many more hours on the SOtM kit over the last couple of days and it is widely reported that the SOtM kit benefits from 400 hours burn in.  Who knows, maybe the XLR connection was actually exacerbating the treble issue, but my money is on the brain reboot.

Whatever the reason, I am a very happy boy right now.  Back to the tunes!