Planar Speaker Asylum

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Planar Speaker Asylum

Newbie needs help

99.26.131.227

With the kids out of the house, I decided to set up a music room. Just received the MMGs, hooked them up to my very old Tandberg 2075 receiver(rated 100w @ 4 ohms). The FM radio sounds fantastic, plenty of power, good bass, the sweet spot is unbelievable. Then I switched to Pandora, running on my PC (thru the headphone jack). Really, really bad. Based on some of the comments, I kind of expected this. I like Pandora because it's easy and I enjoy lots of musical variety. It sounds OK on our Bose theater set up. How do I get it to sound decent on the MMG's? Thanks for your help!

Follow Ups:

RE: Newbie needs help - 905 08:46:19 10/02/10 (1)
Thanks for the feedback. I've made some progress by switching from the 2.2-10mv attenuated inputs to the 150-600mv ones. This helped a great deal. Next step will be a DAC. The Audinst HUD-MX1 costs around $170. Does this sound right? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!
- RE: Newbie needs help - DrChaos 15:47:45 10/03/10 (0)
  Yes, the Audinst should go for about that. It sounds good to me. Go get it.
  
  I was using an E-MU 0202 DAC before, that's been demoted to my office system, though it's quite a nice unit.
RE: Newbie needs help - DrChaos 22:49:03 10/01/10 (0)
Oh, you're running it from the headphone jack.

That's the problem---PC's have TONS of internal electrical noise, and internal audio hardware meant to play beeps.

It is imperative you have a dedicated DAC engineered for audio quality. With a good DAC and some attention to PC hardware & software (you must get bit-perfect playback), they can sound very good .

I like & own the Audinst DAC very much.
you don't - wazoo 20:33:23 10/01/10 (3)
Your question opens with praise at how great the MMGs sound when listening to an FM broadcast, but then you wonder why Pandora sounds like crap. Well, neither is exactly high fidelity, but FM is far better than grossly reduced MP3 streaming. The better the system is, the more those shortcomings become evident.

I'm a big fan of Pandora and I hope that type of media delivery continues to improve, but my answer to your question is, "You don't (make Pandora sound good on the MMGs)." I subscribe to and use Pandora at the office on a system I don't expect to sound great - I'm not disappointed at all. It doesn't sound great, but I still enjoy the music - and make discoveries every once in a while.

"Jazz is not dead - it just smells funny" FZ
- RE: you don't - Green Lantern 01:46:26 10/02/10 (0)
  ditto on subscriber; not sure it's just me or what but I tend to hear the same selections over and over again per channel.
  
  Otherwise I like it~
  "You don't have to be faster than the lion....
  (just the guy running next to you..)" -anonymous
- RE: you don't - DrChaos 22:46:52 10/01/10 (1)
  Pandora One (high bit rate paid subscription) sounds superb on my system.
  
  I have an external USB DAC---far better than FM.
  
  Pandora One is
  a) not streaming, it is download-and-cache (much better/reliable)
  b) not MP3, but 192kbps AAC (possibly even HE-AAC, a very modern codec)
  - okay, you caught me - wazoo 08:38:03 10/02/10 (0)
    Yes, I'm a subscriber to Pandora One, but I wasn't aware of a 'download and cache' option. I don't think streaming is the issue though. I admit to assuming the compression method (that detail is less important to me than how it sounds), but my opinion hasn't changed. I don't use an external DAC via USB (perhaps I should have done that - would have been cheaper). I have, instead (at home, where it is part of a decent system), a Lynx L22 audio card.
    Music that I have ripped onto that system sounds very good. The same songs via Pandora One do not sound the same, and I sincerely wanted that to be the case. Don't get me wrong, I will gladly renew my subscription next year. I'm listening to it right now (Jeff Beck 'Diamond Dust') and it sounds decent (uh oh, is that the word the OP used?) enough, but the CD is better and my SACD of 'Blow by Blow' is better still - as is the record!
    I've taken the blind test on this one and I could identify the source consistently at home with certain types of music - I failed to perform better than guessing at the office. It was a blindfolded experiment with me removed from the room between each sample - and the volume was muted and readjusted to a different level for each. Every time I entered the room, the song was already in progress and I was only given a minute to make my determination. If, for instance, it was a cut by Greg Howe (acoustic guitar), I didn't do too well. If, on the other hand, it was Steve Hackett, I had no difficulty at all.
    I confess; I was overly critical of the sound of Pandora One. I found the non-paid service all but unlistenable at home though, and I'm assuming that's to what the OP was listening. Still, I wouldn't call Pandora One superb - although I see no reason why it shouldn't get there. I'm continually impressed by the improvements in streaming content. For instance, some of the HD content delivered by Netflix is reamarkably good.
    This is obviously the direction in which things are going, and I have no problem with that. My FM tuner (an SAE 8000 I bought in the late 70s) has been boxed for as long as my turntable (a Thorens 126 MKIII) had - I haven't listened to the radio in years because I find nothing on it to enjoy. I have a number of channels on Pandora (I found that the trick is to avoid a thumbs up on any song) that keep me joyfully entertained for hours - and completely commercial free! In that way, it is so far better than FM than I can begin to accurately describe.
    Please accept this repudiation of my hasty indictment of Pandora's audio quality (Alan Parsons' 'I Robot' is playing right now and sounding pretty darn good - ah, just went to Anthony Phillips' 'Sojourn' and still sounding quite decent indeed).
    
    "Jazz is not dead - it just smells funny" FZ
    
    Edits: 10/02/10

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