A Confused streaming system - Mutec / SOtM Ultra

[Confused]

@Confused

Just something else for you to mull over.

Your REW graphs show a clear peak, centred around approx. 4750Hz, and this is The presence range responsible for clarity and definition of a sound. It is the range at which most home stereos center their treble control on.

Over-boosting can cause an irritating, harsh sound. Cutting in this range makes the sound more distant and transparent.*

Sounds familiar, both in irritation and amelioration.

*teachmeaudio.com audio-spectrum

Yes, a good spot.  I think the curves I posted were with 1/12 smoothing, so they perhaps look a little worse than they are, but this is good for picking up potential issues.  

A couple of very interesting things here, checking this peak on REW, if this specific peak was reduced by 3dB, it would pretty much blend in and look like the adjacent peaks, setting REW to say 1/3 smoothing the only obvious peak is at about 4.6kHz.  My cheating cure for the SOtM issue appears to be setting the treble to -3dB, surely no coincidence?  

One other point, looking at some older REW curves I have I do not see this peak, or at least not at 4.6kHz.  This could be due to the microphone location I used for this weekends test, maybe something else.  I can't think of any other significant changes I have made in the room though.  Definitely worthy of further investigation, and easy to reverse with Roon's parametric EQ.  

It remains puzzling that this peak was also there with the mR, but the mR was less annoying with poor recordings.  I don't think we will ever resolve that one.

EDIT: I note that by default the Devialet’s treble control is set at 2000Hz, so my earlier experiments lowing the treble by -1dB and -2dB would have hit the 3dB peak at 4600Hz nicely.  Maybe configuring it  at 4600Hz would be even better?