how to improve my sound?

[Guest lÿsërgïç]

ive had my stereo for years now, but after listening to my same cds on other peoples systems and hearing a whole tapestry of sound i didnt even hear at home, ive come to realise that my stereo is quite bad quality sound. im pretty sure its the midrange sounds, like subtle bleeps, squelches and some synth lines (which is probaly the most important frequency range in psytrance), and i really want to get some better gear, but not over spend.

 

at the moment its an old Sharp stereo + two Sharp speakers, and two OLD Pioneer speakers. i bought it second hand years ago, when i was about 14 so obviously i didnt have a very good ear for sound at that age anyway.

 

im really not sure if the biggest problem would be the actual stereo, or the speakers. so i have no idea where to start.

 

can anyone here recommend anything they have had a good experience with or just know its a good product? (doesnt need to be very loud, 50 watts would probaly be ok)

 

for example, is there any brands inparticular that are known for good midrange speakers? would i be best off just chucking out all my old speakers but keeping the boxes and customizing them?

and who makes good CLEAR bass speakers?

 

thanks for ANY help

[Otto Matta]

Whatever you decide to do, you might want to invest a little cash in at least a cheap sub-woofer. I got my first one a couple months ago - it came with the JVC micro-system I got for $300US (this little system cranks big time) - and it makes ALL the difference. Which means you could keep the speakers, but you'd have to invest in a receiver or amp that has a sub-woofer input. Highly recommend it if you can afford it. EA

[Guest lÿsërgïç]

does the bass ever overpower the midrange tho?

 

i really hope not, since i dont listen to much minimal

[Otto Matta]

Not really - you can adjust the level of the subwoofer separately even if it does. And I know you were joking about the minimal thing, but I find that a subwoofer enhances all types of music, not just super bass oriented electronic music. When I first plugged the thing in it was like I had never heard music before (kinda like in springtime when the thaw is over and all the ladies start wearing less clothes and you feel like you've never seen a woman before).

[Guest tequila]

for electronic music, the B&W loudspeakers are great and not that expensives, especially if you buy them second hands.

after all, it's not randomly that B&W created a company named blue room released that released psytrance CDs during many years.

[Guest lifeform]

EA, you probably have the same system i have JVC MX-J700? I like this stereo alot, it kicks hard but you get the mid range as well. and if i dont feel like have bass pounded into my head just turn down the "subwoofer volume" .. pretty cool.

[Otto Matta]

Lifeform - I've got the JVC FS-8000. It's a micro system (check it out: http://www.goelectro.com/minisystem/pages/...iJVCFS8000.htm), as opposed to the MX-J700 which is a completely funked-out mini system (or is it a boombox?). I use the speakers that came with it for surround speakers for my main system in my living room, and hooked up some larger ones that I had laying around to the JVC. Too bad the ceiling between me and my upstairs neighbor's bedroom is so thin, otherwise I'd be cranking this thing all day all night - the sound is really incredible - rib shaking - when turned up. EA

[Guest mE]

So what are the Best speakers? i've seen allot of parties with speakers with a little Blue LED on the front, I dunno what brand they are... but those seem common.

[Guest mE]

i want some klipsch

[Guest vasyachkin]

JMLab and INFINITY come to mind

 

i mention these guys because they actually INNOVATE, not follow. JMLab has two proprietary composite sandwich cone materials and INFINITY also uses a proprietary composite material called CMMD which is a ceramic-reinforced aluminum - cool ))

 

they also seem to be reasonably priced. and infinity is freaking cheap.

 

i would strongly suggest that you also look into Bi-Amped speakers such as Genelec.

 

i say this because there is a thing in a speaker called crossover, which costs ALOT to implement well in a passive speaker, and very little to implement poorly. But in an active speaker it costs the same to build it either way (good or bad). So active speaker will almost always have good crossover and passive speaker will almost always have a poor one and crossovers affect sound a great deal.

 

B&W is also a cool company but they mostly innovate in the cabinet design not driver design. (cabinets also contribute to sound)

 

i got no personal experience with any of these guys except that i got JMLab 10" woofers in my DIY speakers (great woofers) and i also got 4" JMLab drivers in my car also very nice )) JMLab's components sell under brand name FOCAL

[Guest lifeform]

EA. No mines not a boombox. it's a "stereo system". 350 watts of power with 2 nice woofers connected to the speakers. pretty cool for having my parents pick it out for me 2 christmas's back. You guys probably have more powerful @!#$ but this is all i need.

[Guest dam10n]

Blue Room Minipods - www.minipod.com - best for trance.

I'm upgrading to a pioneer amp on their advice

Never heard anything like these speakers for bring the sounds out to the middle of the room

[Guest sven]

before you buy a new stereo, buy good quality cables!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest mE]

What is crossover?? I'd really like to know... VERY curious

[Guest lÿsërgïç]

correct me if im wrong, but i think they are the things that ensure the right frequency gets sent to the right speaker?

[Guest vasyachkin]

correct, crossover sends bass to woofer and treble to tweeter, only this description does not tell you how they may sound different

 

with any crossover there is always a region of overlapping frequencies which get sent to both tweeter and woofer. sound, has both amplitude and phase and when two sound waves add (woofer+tweeter) the resultant amplitude is affected by amplitudes as well as phases of both components going into it. crossovers affect both amplitude and phase so this becomes very tricky. as if this wasn't bad enough depending on the placement and orientation of the speaker the relative phase of woofer and tweeter will change!!! because the distance from your ear to woofer and tweeter is different. these problems cannot be eliminated completely but different crossovers will handle them more or less successfully.

 

a 8th order crossover will have an overlap region that is 8 times smaller than that of a 1st order crossover, this is one way to deal with the problem ... a speaker you buy may have any order crossovers but 1st through 4th are most common in passive speakers, while 4th through 8th are more common in active ones.

 

this is not to say 8th order is automatically better than 1st some people will say otherwise - go figure, crossovers are a mess

 

real-life crossovers also equalize the sound of speakers to desired level of flatness (so they don't just divide the sound). this is another reason why they affect the sound.

 

if poor quality parts are used crossovers can actually even add distortion to the sound, however this is usually not very important because speakers themselves add more distortion.

 

so what's my point? my point is its cheaper to get active crossover right than to get passive one right. this is why manufacturer will go to the expense of building in TWO amplifiers into a bi-amped monitor instead of using just one. with just one amplifier a passive crossover would be required. there are also other inherent advantages to active speakers, that are too technical for our purposes. if the manufacturer went to the expense of using two amps, it means they weren't satisfied with performance that passive crossover would provide, so in GENERAL an active speaker should have better crossover and better sound.