Distortion on Peaks

Posted by AtomHeart (A) on January 13, 2005 at 07:57:35

Hi guys,

I am currently having some trouble with my system, and trying to find a way to hammer it out. I recently upgraded my source to a tube modified Sony SACD player, and I am experiencing distortion on strong peaks when playing through it. It is most easily noticeable on recordings with a louder overall volume level. My previous source didn't have the clarity or resolution to really notice fine detail/distortions like this, so I cant say if this is a new problem or an old problem newly revealed. I tried changing the tube, and it did help the problem, but I'm pretty sure I can still hear it slightly unless I'm just hearing digital haze now. The tube I replaced was new, and the current tube I'm running looks like its had a lot of play time, but I dont know the history of it.

The listening room/home theater has a lot of metallic echo problems, so I have some acoustic foam panels arriving in the next couple days to help eliminate that. The system also has a lot of haze and general noise from power problems, but I tested an older PS Audio P300 and almost all of that went away, so I have a P500 arriving next week to help reduce or eliminate that problem.

My thoughts on the distortion are that I'm overdriving the input on my receiver with the tube output on the new SACD. The player puts out 3.5v and I think that is just above the threshold for my receiver, and is causing distortion only when there's a strong peak. Could the new tube have reduced the distortion to (almost) inaudible because it may be old and have a weaker output? Could the first tube have just been defective? I've noticed this older tube doesn't produce many strong peaks (if any) in the music. I am afraid that putting some room treatment up to reduce slap/flutter echo, and cleaning up the haze in my system with clean, regenerated power is only going to make my peak distortion more noticeable and therefore more annoying when I go to a new stronger sounding tube.

To add to that, the tube I'm using right now is sort of dull and muffled compared to the original tube that caused a lot more distortion, so I would like to be able to go back to a newer, more vibrant sounding tube.

My Question: Does it sound like I have correctly diagnosed the source of the distortion, or could it be something that isn't even related to the tube output voltage? I have a couple really cheap line attenuators on the way to test the theory that its output voltage. I ordered some 1dB attenuators for about $6 each. I dont suspect they will sound too good, but will at least tell me if its going to fix the problem to attenuate the tube output. If it does remove the distortion, I will get me a pair of EVS attenuators as a permanent solution.

I just wanted some opinions from tech-knowledgable guys about whether I'm going down the right road, or if this is a totally different issue that I haven't even started addressing. Any thoughts or advice? Thanks.

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Topic - Distortion on Peaks - AtomHeart 07:57:35 01/13/05 (1)

Re: Distortion on Peaks - AtomHeart 06:16:10 01/14/05 (0)

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