Muffled Vocals/Sound Clarity
I recently received a pair of Polk T15 Speakers as a gift to use with an AudioTechnica turntable. I have the speakers and the turntable wired up to an Insignia bluetooth receiver. The sound is not quite right. I have adjusted the bass and treble. The issue is more noticeable with some vinyls than others. The main issue is that the vocals sound muffled, or suppressed. Like if a blanket or something had been tossed over a speaker. A friend and I have tried changing the wiring, changing inputs... The speakers are wired with speaker wire to the receiver. Any thoughts on what this could be? The speakers are new and about a month old. I tried using the bluetooth connection on the turntable to connect to a portable Bluetooth speaker, and the sound quality was much better. Any thoughts on what this could be?
Comments
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What model number is your Insignia receiver? Which input on the receiver are you connecting the turntable to? Does this receiver have a phono input or just inputs for CD and Aux components like this one?
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-200w-2-0-ch-stereo-receiver-black/4156007.p?skuId=4156007Post edited by Marfly on -
Is the cartridge aligned correctly?
Are you sure the tweeters are working? Put a toilet paper tube over them and put your ear up to the other end.afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
Is the cartridge aligned correctly?
Are you sure the tweeters are working? Put a toilet paper tube over them and put your ear up to the other end.
Wouldn't that be really uncomfortable for extended listening sessions? %^) -
Assuming that the speakers are OK...
I wonder if the left and right hot and ground wires to the cartridge are miswired such that the two channels are out of phase (ahem, "reversed polarity", I mean) with respect to each other. This can have the effect of canceling out much of the vocals on a track.
A quick and (very) dirty way to test this is to reverse the wiring to one of the two speakers and play a track with muffled vocals. If the vocals come back... I am guessing that's the problem. I am assuming, of course, that the arm has four wires (separate L & R grounds) and not just three. (I guess it could still be an issue with three, though, if less likely)
If the wiring were indeed to be found as the 'root cause', it would mean swapping two wires (e.g., LH and LG) on the cartridge. Not quite a trivial task, but not really difficult on most reasonable headshells (i.e., it may depend on what flavor of A-T we're talkin' about, here). Care must be taken not to break the little plug-on connectors at the end of the wires on the arm, of course
This is just a SWAG (in case that's not obvious).
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What model number is your Insignia receiver? Which input on the receiver are you connecting the turntable to? Does this receiver have a phono input or just inputs for CD and Aux components like this one?
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-200w-2-0-ch-stereo-receiver-black/4156007.p?skuId=4156007
The model of the Insignia receiver is NS-STR514. I have tried putting the turntable on CD, Aux 1, Aux 3, and via bluetooth as the turntable also has bluetooth. Each produced the same effect. It is more noticeable in some vinyls than others. -
What model number is your Insignia receiver? Which input on the receiver are you connecting the turntable to? Does this receiver have a phono input or just inputs for CD and Aux components like this one?
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-200w-2-0-ch-stereo-receiver-black/4156007.p?skuId=4156007
The model of the Insignia receiver is NS-STR514. I have tried putting the turntable on CD, Aux 1, Aux 3, and via bluetooth as the turntable also has bluetooth. Each produced the same effect. It is more noticeable in some vinyls than others.
As suspected, there's your problem. Your receiver doesn't have a dedicated phono stage. You will need an external phono preamp for those Line Level inputs if your table is to sound right.
Here's an example of a budget preamp, others are available and vary in prices. For your rig, something like this would work just fine.
https://www.amazon.com/rolls-VP29-Phono-Preamp/dp/B0002BG2R2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?tag=digitren08-in-cont-20&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&linkId=1a76d89a214c8569a28eb60f479a1910&ascsubtag=home-theater:1157549:1503196064a2e18a8f -
Some Audio-Technica tables have built in preamps. What's the model number of your turntable? If it has a built in pre, you simply need to switch it on and you're ready to rock & roll.
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lmay23, if this is your turntable, watch this video. It will walk you through on how to set it up correctly with it's built in preamp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOMI4gVE1i0
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There is no such thing as "vinyls."Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
There is no such thing as "vinyls."
I'm heading to Walmart to pick up some socks's and underwears's.afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
At his level of gear he probably has a Turntable with a built in preamp.afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
https://youtu.be/wv-34w8kGPM