118dB/W@1m and noise

[manisandher]

One of the things that I've struggled with has been the ambient noise coming through my Orelo speakers. Well I played around with a few things yesterday and managed to get the noise down to barely audible with my ear IN the horn. And the resulting SQ when playing music is totally unbelievable.

Peter and Paul (Scroobius) have been banging on about the importance of reducing noise to an absolute minimum... to improve SQ. I have to say that I now agree with them both 100%. I'm not sure how you'd tackle with less sensitive speakers though, as the noise would already be attenuated to low levels.

In any event, I think I'm only now really hearing what the Orelo speakers are capable of. And I have to say that they are simply the most realistic speakers I've ever heard. But I'll be going to Paul's next week, so may have to amend this. (I still love the 'tone' of the large MBL speakers from the mid-range upwards - the bass is cr*p IMO - but I think the Orelos are more realistic - sort of 'an oil painting vs. a photo' difference).

Mani.

[PeterSt]

Maybe for others (when not clear in the first place) :

I'm not sure how you'd tackle with less sensitive speakers though, as the noise would already be attenuated to low levels.

What Mani means here is that with the (ultra-)high sensitive speaker (of 118dB) you at least have the chance of hearing noise, so you are able to take that out say 20 dB further than you could do it audibly with an 98dB sensitive speaker.
It is thus not so that the audibility of the noise is devistating, no, it is about even the smallest noise is riding on the (wave of the) signal, and it destroys that signal (for say its purity).


Mani, may I ask ...

I would say that your Orelo MKII was inherently without audible noise (always at full gain, amps built in) and that the system as a whole is quite self-containing (our NOS1a included, no preamp required hence that not being in use so there's nothing much left but the PC). Additionally I never heard you about this (like in complaining) while you know it is my personal key matter for the best sound (as you just told);

What was going on that you had that audible noise going on (while it shouldn't) ? I mean, apparently you maybe thought I was kidding or whatever else that made you not believe me, and therefore you didn't attack the problem in the first place (never mentioned it either) ? I now mean : it is quite crucial for me to learn what it was that created this noise. For a next one and helping out ...

Thanks and thank you for sharing,
Peter