I just bought some TRefs last week that I absolutely LOVE! But, in listening to some songs, I came across a few surprises.

In the song Everloving, by Moby, the song starts playing almost exclusively from the left channel. But almost immediately, there is static that come and goes throughout the entire song. In far less speakers, I can clearly hear something happening at the same time the static presents itself, but it doesn't sound like static. And with the song Thanks to You, by Boz Scaggs, there is a trumpet that starts playing at 15 seconds, from just the right channel, that clearly has static until 27 seconds. It goes away as long as the trumpet isn't playing, but it happens again at 1:22 for a few seconds, 2:30, basically, whenever that trumpet starts playing in the right channel there is either a slight amount of distortion or static coming from that channel.

What concerns me is that these two songs are used by two different reviewers as reference songs, but they never mention hearing static. Are these TRef speakers just that revealing? Should I be concerned about the electronics I'm using? I have swapped out everything, changed the left/ right channels, but it's consistent each time.

I'd appreciate it if others reading this who own the TRefs or 1Rs could try out those two songs and report back. But I really think it's actually part of the song that's just not as present on lesser speakers.

Thank you all,

Josh

(PS... I have swapped in and out a Cambridge Audio CXN streamer, an Emotiva XSP-1 preamp, a Marantz AV7702mkII pre/pro, Airplay, Qobuz, speaker cables, interconnects, used my computer via usb into the CXN, Optical, Balanced, and Analog outputs from the CXN... The only constants have been my Anthem P2 amp, and the speakers.)

Hmmm... a couple things to check.

I don't have these albums/tracks so I'll ask a few questions. Does this happen at any volume level? If you put your ear near the speaker, can you identify just where the static comes from? If you unplug the speakers from AC power, does the static still occur? If you flip Left & Right speakers (or simply the wires at the amp) does the static move with the new connections?

I streamed these two songs from Tidal and listened on my TRefs. I heard no issues with my system. The brass in Thanks To You sounds a bit harsh, but not like static.

Nice songs!

Are you streaming these songs? Or playing from a file or CD? If streaming, maybe you have some digital connection issues, either your wifi/Ethernet/router. Could also be trouble with your digital cabling. I'm just guessing here...

Charlie

I can only speak about Moby's "Everloving":

I think it's purely intentional, several songs on the album Play (2014) are intentionaly using low quality remixed "found samples", not just "Everloving".

There are also other usually unwanted sounds - on "If Things Were Perfect" there's a lot of equipment hum and even loud sound of someone quickly turning notation pages right at the start of song. "Porcelain" has tons of distortion on string samples. And there are various pops and ticks throughout album, even on 2014 24-bit 96 KHz remaster.

So I think this less than perfect aestethics is very intentional, and if your soud system glosses over it and somehow masks it, then it surely hides lots of other musical information.

Thank you guys for the responses.... Just as a follow up, I went to the dealership where I got these and played the tracks on a far more expensive setup and heard everything else I described. So, it's the tracks and not my equipment. I also had a friend over yesterday and he said he couldn't hear the static at all despite it being terribly present to me in Moby's song. Maybe I'm just really sensitive to it? But I'm confident now that it isn't an issue in my setup.

Mod - thank you for kicking this off. I did all the steps you recommended but unplugging the power. I'll keep that in mind in the future if I have an issue. Thank you!

Charlie - thank you for listening to the songs. And yes, I'm streaming the songs. After listening to Thanks to You, I don't think I described it accurately. It's more like the trumpet was recorded separately, and with far more background noise than the rest of the song.

And Bwaze, you're absolutely correct. It's just the songs. I listened to the others you recommended and found the same exact "issues" that you annotate. Thank you for your input and time.

I apologize for getting a little panicked in my initial post. I'm not used to hearing such detail in songs and it's going to take a little time to get used to it and to trust something new. Having said that, just relaxing, and really listening to songs I'm familiar with, is an absolute treat with these speakers. There is a new level of detail that I was missing since getting into audio about 3 years ago and it's incredible. Thank you all again.

I'm glad you figured it out, and welcome to the world of crystal clear tranparency! I am always amazed at the details I can hear with these speakers.

Enjoy!

Charlie