rawkabillyrebel Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Hi, I have a pair of Cornwall II's matched to a Sansui AU-919. They sound awesome with any sound file, or movie file, except MP3's. These can sound shrill at higher volumes. I replaced the entire crossovers in the speakers with Bob Crites crossovers and this improved the sound quality a lot, but there is still some shrillness. Has anyone noticed the same problem with MP3 files and can suggest a resolution. Thanx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 MP3 files are compressed. It is possible the level of compression may have something to do with this. Most people cannot tell the difference in 320 kbps MP3's and lossless. Anything below that will inclrease the chance of crappy sound especially in a revealing speaker like a Khorn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 See the following thread for a clue to what's going on with MP3s--just in terms of frequency response: http://community.klipsch.com/forums/t/100991.aspx The sonic effect of file compression on MP3 files isn't very intuitive, as it turns out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Audio_quality I don't play MP3 files on my setup (see profile) because you can hear the poor quality - even at highest bitrates. The only ones that I listen to are 320 kbps MP3s on my iPod ripped directly from CDs, etc., played in my car and over noise-cancelling headphones in the workplace to drown out distractions. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 why would even suggest this is a speaker issue OP? that's an approach from the wrong direction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rawkabillyrebel Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 Thanx for the reply. I was thinking along the same lines. I will check the bit rate of files that sound shrill and compare it tohigher bit rate ones. Take care Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rawkabillyrebel Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 PS Bob, those crosssovers and titanium diaphragms you sold me continue to impress!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechMan Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 If you must play your MP3's a DAC could definately help your issue. My cheap little DAC-09 smooths out crappy MP3's quite nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 If you must play your MP3's a DAC could definately help your issue. My cheap little DAC-09 smooths out crappy MP3's quite nicely. Good point. He mentioned the integrated amp, but not the source. I have never tried a tube DA Converter. How does it compare to a solid state DAC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechMan Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 If you must play your MP3's a DAC could definately help your issue. My cheap little DAC-09 smooths out crappy MP3's quite nicely. Good point. He mentioned the integrated amp, but not the source. I have never tried a tube DA Converter. How does it compare to a solid state DAC? All I can say for sure is it blows away the dac in my PS3. The DAC-09 is the only stand alone I have tried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rawkabillyrebel Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 Thanx. My Oppo BDP83 which I use to play MP3's has a pretty awesome DAC built in. I am not sure how an additional one would be of benefit. Just asking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Thanx. My Oppo BDP83 which I use to play MP3's has a pretty awesome DAC built in. I am not sure how an additional one would be of benefit. Just asking. Perhaps it has something to do with his being a tube DAC. If the tube DAC is the silver bullet, you could come out of your SPDIF (bitstream) output into the tube DAC, and then into the integrated amp. If it is not the silver bullet, you would be wasting time on a digital coax and a tube DAC. One more point. The BDP-83 does not have the best DAC. To get that, you need the BDP-95. I have a BDP-93, and do not use the DAC in it. I use the DAC in my Integra DHC-80.3 preamp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rawkabillyrebel Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 Thanx for the advice on the DAC. I realize that there are better players out there. At the time for a Universal Blu-Ray player it seemed the best value. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 I have the Oppo DV980 and the Grant Fidelity DAC-09. This DAC is a big value for the money IMHO and I prefer it to the DAC in the Oppo. The tube that came with the DAC was not bad but I replaced it with a JW Western Electric 396a and I am quite happy. I think a tube DAC will help with the MP3 files but it might only be barely tolerable. I used to think my lower bitrate MP3 files were fine until I got heritage Klipsch and finally heard the music. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechMan Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Hey muel. I'm also using the WE 396A, seems to be the tube of choice for this DAC and it really does make a diff on the lower quality recordings. Night and day over how I used to stream directly with the PS3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boom3 Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Corns like the rest of Heritage are very revealing of source quality. If I stream to my "big set" with four Corn IIs, I only send lossless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyrc Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 MP3 is a low fi to mid fi medium; its inferior fidelity is often masked (to a degree) by the hyper-spatiality of headphones when heard using them, but drops like a rock when played on a good sound system with speakers. Even the pro-media 2.1 manual warns the consumer to not expect really high fidelity from most MP3. Why use an inferior medium? [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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