Why does my TV sound more real?

Geoffkait said:

There are quite a few reasons why TV sound might sound better than a dedicated HiFi system.

1. There are errors in the HiFi system. e.g., out of phase/polarity.
2. There are some inherent problems with playing CDs that produce unnatural tonality, loss of ambient information, loss of coherence including, but not limited to,
- scattered laser light
- internal and external vibration impact on CD system,
- wobble and flutter of the CD while spinning,
- static electric charge buildup on the CD
3. live broadcasts can have a lot of “air” and dimensionality

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Never said that the TV sounds better than my HiFi system.
Never said I had a CD player.

Geoffkait said:

I thought you said the tv sounded better than your system you had just listened to. Maybe I misread your post. Not to mention many of the issues with CD playback apply to vinyl as well.

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Um, as TV’s and CD’s are both digital, why would I be astounded if a concert played live over my TV sounded better than a CD player playing a recording? Why wouldn’t a TV sound better?

Let me reiterate: After listening to different SET amps (2A3’s, 300B’s, 211’s etc.) on Youtube on my computer (digital) through a Dragonfly DAC and Audeze headphones (some other megabuck systems too) I switched to my vinyl two channel rig (tricked out Garrard 301, Reed 5A tonearm, Phasemation PP2000 MC cartridge, Phasemation T2000 SUT’s, Ypsilon phono stage, Ayon Spitfire SET amplifier, Altec VOT A7 speakers) and tried (again) to like the music from a Deutsche Gramophone “Original Source” record. Alas, the Original Source for those records was a quadraphonic master and I think that the processing they use to turn quadraphonic into stereo degrades it somehow so that it, like most of the Youtube videos, didn’t have the realness in tone or emotion that I subsequently got listening to a live orchestral performance on my TV later that day.

It was not the first time that I had been taken back by the realistic tones of acoustic instruments and voice on my television, so I decided to take a chance (knowing I would be attacked by those less secure) and just put it out there for members of this forum to ponder. Has anyone else out there noticed how good TV can reproduce music these days? If so, and secure enough in their status as an audiophile and hearing ability to ignore the Trolls and say so, then please do … and postulate as to what factors they think accounts for such, and are they applicable to our hobby?

That is the thinking behind my original post…wordier than the OP, but apparently I did not explain it well enough in the OP.

Rensselaer said:

I don’t think it is that you and I hear any better than anyone else, but differently perhaps. I am now certain that many people on this website can not hear a difference between digital and analogue, which is not to say one is any better than the other, just that to some of us, maybe a minority, the more music is processed (in any way), the more unreal it sounds.

Watch, several will now attack me for mentioning a difference between analogue and digital, but that isn’t what I am saying. What I am saying is the more music is processed, the less real it sounds.

To the best of my knowledge, those “Original Source” records are pure analogue, but I do suspect that in the “process” of converting an already edited to four channel ”quadraphonic” master, into a two channel “stereo” master, may be the fact responsible for us finding such less-than-real-sounding.

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I must amend my last opinion about”Original Source “ recordings from Deutsche Gramophone. Since writing the above, I have replaced my Ayon Spitfire integrated with an Ongaku tribute 211 amp built by Ken at OTOMON Labs in Japan. Now the Carlos Kleiber (Beethoven Symphony Nr. 7) is MUCH more dynamic and musical (haven’t listened to the rest but assume similar differences secondary to my amplifier change). My apologies to Deutsche Gramophone for dismissive comments about their product.

hopkins said:

Have you found other programs on your TV that sound very good or was this an outlier?

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Occasionally, I am taken back by how good my tv can sound. Mind you, tv’s have come a long way over the years. When I was a kid tv pictures were only in black and white, you changed the channels manually and usually had to adjust horizontal and vertical tracking each time you did. Spent quality time with my dad by taking valves/tubes from the back of the tv to the grocery store so we could check each one on the tube checker there. Today, I am also astounded by being able to watch a Netflix movie in 4k on a thin iPad held in one hand while in bed at night.