I ran into a surprising (to me) issue yesterday, while accompanying a friend to audition some speakers.
Before leaving his house, we listened to a few of his and my test tracks on his system.
When he played John Renbourn's Earl of Salisbury from the Sir John Alot album, I immediately interjected "you have your speakers reversed, the glockenspiel should be in the left channel!"
While I am occasionally guilty of reversing channels and/or channel phase, I now consistently used test tracks to unambiguously identify the correct L/R channel and phase. The glockenspiel is in the left channel. With both of us engineers, you can imagine that we were each sure that the other had miswired their system.
On to the audio dealer and our very first objective, even before SQ, was to determine "where was the glockenspiel." To my dismay, I heard it in the right (i.e. WRONG) channel. WTF!
After an hour of streaming on Qobuz, I requested that we listen to my test tracks on a USB stick plugged directly into the Bartok DAC. I am an absolutely confirmed believer that WAV files sound better than FLAC files of the same music, and since Qobuz streams FLAC, I wanted to hear the speakers being auditioned under the best circumstances.
First conclusion: It was immediately obvious from the first track (Concerto for Cootie from Ellington's Great Paris Concerts) that the SQ from the Bartok was hugely improved and not at all subtle. I'd go so far as to say that I would not evaluate any system in the future on streaming (e.g. FLAC) alone. I cannot unheard the difference. YMMV, of course.
The second conclusion is not debatable. The glockenspiel was now in the left speaker. We repeated the test when we got back to his house, comparing a CD he had ripped to the streaming version. The glockenspiel again changed channels, so we've concluded that Qobuz has reversed the L and R channels.
A different dealer we spoke to today estimated that up to 10% of albums may be reversed on streaming sites. Since I listen to 95% or more local files, this had never before come to my attention. Maybe this is well known to more experienced streaming folks?
I think it matters but I've had responses ranging from
1. If it doesn't involve video, it doesn't matter
to
2. If I'm used to it one way, reversing the channels can be disconcerting
to
2b. It should be played the way the artist intended of course
to my wife's response
3. Of course it matters. I know where the bass players in the orchestra are sitting and this is not subjective!
Maybe this is well known and I've just never run into it, but I thought I'd see what others' experiences have been.
Before leaving his house, we listened to a few of his and my test tracks on his system.
When he played John Renbourn's Earl of Salisbury from the Sir John Alot album, I immediately interjected "you have your speakers reversed, the glockenspiel should be in the left channel!"
While I am occasionally guilty of reversing channels and/or channel phase, I now consistently used test tracks to unambiguously identify the correct L/R channel and phase. The glockenspiel is in the left channel. With both of us engineers, you can imagine that we were each sure that the other had miswired their system.
On to the audio dealer and our very first objective, even before SQ, was to determine "where was the glockenspiel." To my dismay, I heard it in the right (i.e. WRONG) channel. WTF!
After an hour of streaming on Qobuz, I requested that we listen to my test tracks on a USB stick plugged directly into the Bartok DAC. I am an absolutely confirmed believer that WAV files sound better than FLAC files of the same music, and since Qobuz streams FLAC, I wanted to hear the speakers being auditioned under the best circumstances.
First conclusion: It was immediately obvious from the first track (Concerto for Cootie from Ellington's Great Paris Concerts) that the SQ from the Bartok was hugely improved and not at all subtle. I'd go so far as to say that I would not evaluate any system in the future on streaming (e.g. FLAC) alone. I cannot unheard the difference. YMMV, of course.
The second conclusion is not debatable. The glockenspiel was now in the left speaker. We repeated the test when we got back to his house, comparing a CD he had ripped to the streaming version. The glockenspiel again changed channels, so we've concluded that Qobuz has reversed the L and R channels.
A different dealer we spoke to today estimated that up to 10% of albums may be reversed on streaming sites. Since I listen to 95% or more local files, this had never before come to my attention. Maybe this is well known to more experienced streaming folks?
I think it matters but I've had responses ranging from
1. If it doesn't involve video, it doesn't matter
to
2. If I'm used to it one way, reversing the channels can be disconcerting
to
2b. It should be played the way the artist intended of course
to my wife's response
3. Of course it matters. I know where the bass players in the orchestra are sitting and this is not subjective!
Maybe this is well known and I've just never run into it, but I thought I'd see what others' experiences have been.
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