Lorne I'm sure you realize that digital edginess has to be coming directly from that budget source player; the bettter part of your lineup is only reproducing what is input to it. My first thought is to put your $ into a better portable player (sorry I have no rec's on portables, but others might?) rather than trying to filter out the trash from your source. Otherwise if you're comitted to trying to make this setup play better for you, some cheap cables that kinda rolloff the higher frequencies might be helpful. A pair of MIT T-2 might be helpful? Whatever you do, certainly you'd want copper based interconnects vs. silver; silver would likely only accentuate the problem. I've no experience with Nordost, but I have read commentary from others who state that it's on the brighter side to begin with so I wouldn't think that that's your best solution.
cable as tone control
I'm looking for recommendations into a cable that can help me control breightness that I cannot otherwise tame.
The system is actually my portable - A Panasonic 580 "walkman" type CD player, Grado RA-1 headphone amp and Koss portable headphones. This is a Headroom recommended system and I use it while driving my '66 MGB, in which I dare not put an aftermarket stereo. And it actually sounds quite good considering the source player.
What's your recommendation for a cable that will help tame the brighness as best I can, since I can't use a DAC or bring my SCD-1 in the car! (The Grado RA-1 headphone amp uses standard RCA cables to connect to the Panasionic with a mini stereo adapter).
I do a lot of listening on this system, so I'd look at cables with a list price of up to $1500 (i.e Golden Cross, Quatro Fil, etc. -- but my gut feeling is that's there is some lower price stuff out there that might be specifically good at helping to tame that digital edginess that I hate so much. --Lorne
The system is actually my portable - A Panasonic 580 "walkman" type CD player, Grado RA-1 headphone amp and Koss portable headphones. This is a Headroom recommended system and I use it while driving my '66 MGB, in which I dare not put an aftermarket stereo. And it actually sounds quite good considering the source player.
What's your recommendation for a cable that will help tame the brighness as best I can, since I can't use a DAC or bring my SCD-1 in the car! (The Grado RA-1 headphone amp uses standard RCA cables to connect to the Panasionic with a mini stereo adapter).
I do a lot of listening on this system, so I'd look at cables with a list price of up to $1500 (i.e Golden Cross, Quatro Fil, etc. -- but my gut feeling is that's there is some lower price stuff out there that might be specifically good at helping to tame that digital edginess that I hate so much. --Lorne