can a new amp amp tame my speakers?


Just spent some time listening to what I've been planning to upgrade to for main speakers. PSB Synchronys. The Imagine T2's are close, but slightly veiled in comparison. My current, but old, Infinity Kappa 7's really don't give much away to the PSB's. My amp is an old Yamaha MX2, 125wpc, and I've heard them described as bright or harsh, and that's the only complaint I really have with the sound now. Can a well-chosen amp tame the highs on the Kappa'a, which use a ribbon-style tweeter? Or is the 'taming' I seek only going to happen with a speaker upgrade. I honestly don't mind upgrading the speakers, and fully expected to, but after today's auditioning, I'm wondering if I'm going to get that much benefit from that level of investment. $3500+ is a healthy chunk of coin for benefits of slimmer profile and tamed highs. In terms of imaging, weight, and bass, the Kappa's are equal, imo. The system is also the theater, but the avr can power the surrounds, so an amp upgrade could be 2 channel. A power boost is a must too, as the current 125wpc isn't enough for when wifey's not home and the volume gets wound up ;)
english210
English, set your budget and stick with it. If $200 is your IC limit, there are great used ICs out there worth several times that that will make your system sing.
I get your point with the older speakers. But read up on the amp. You may find some synergy info from the pros out there. Ask the guy you bought your amp from what ICs and speaker wires he used. Find out what speakers/wires other Gon-ers use w their identical amps.
Read up on ribbon tweeters and what ICs pros or Gon-ers used with them.
By the time you do all that research, you will have saved for some great wires. Haha!
Call your speaker manufacturer and ask what brand of wires they recommend.
Ask your Hifi guy to demo some wires in your price range. Do not stretch above your price limit because you won't want to let them go! Haha!
I did that with AQ and found I definitely did not like silver with my Yamaha amp. Great extension, but too hot.
I REALLY like MITs interconnects with my OPpo 95.

When I jumped into MITs, I bought a spool of their 4-conductor wire used in high end home theater installations. My future son in law terminated them. I still use them for my rears in my audiophile setup, and they sound great. Even that wire beat $200 monster speaker cables for linearity, extension and neutrality. Monster bloats the mids and sounds "warmer", but I had to turn my knobs down because so much more info was coming from the bass and the highs!!
Once my ear adjusted to a more neutral sound, I knew I was on the right track. Like I said, I found some decent older MITs and picked them up for my fronts and center when I found crazy good deals, and replaced the installation wires. My $200 monsters went into my home theater and I retired the monster 16 gauge wire from the fronts and center speakers there.
If you buy a name brand like kimbers, MITs, nordost, AQ, and stick around the $200 range for used interconnects, you can easily resell anything that doesn't work for you!
@ english210,, If you ever want to know about Taralabs, let me know,I have bought there cables since they have been in bussiness!, I now have cost no object top of the line cables by them!,they are among the few as best available! cheers!
Audiolabyrinth,
I agree that Tara's are the best!
They opened up the vinyl playback, and the more I layered them, the better the sound got.
We have Tara lab the 2 and 0.8 in set up for IC and phono wires.
Someday--Tara lab speaker wires.
We spent our big money on vinyl playback.
It is music therapy for my husband who is in pain every day. It relaxes him like crazy to listen to vinyl.
I was cautioned that Tara's are so revealing that you don't want them if you haven't already optimized your hardware because they will reveal weaknesses in the system and set up that you may not like hearing! Haha!
In reality,for us with the mufi kw 500 and the arc ph3se, the vinyl sounds so great, it is hard to quit once we start for the evening. We have had way too many 3ams! Our TT is a clearaudio Revolution with strad cart.
But our Hifi gurus tell me there are more neutral amps than mufi out there.
And our speakers get us maybe 90% of the $25k speakers we have heard at shows. There is always another level! Haha!
I hope our friend finds his audio nirvana with some good wires and settles in for music fun soon!
Deb
@ deebarnes,, I just recommended a tara 0.8EX i/c for a member here on the gon,he put it between his analog pre-amp and the pre-amp,, needless to say he loved it so much he took my advice again and bought a 5 meter 0.8EX to go from his pre-amp to his amps!,, we have alot of tara fans on the thread here on the gon called taralabs the one versus the 0.8,,, on the cable threads, I have got 3 people to buy the taralabs cables and they love them,, all recently, just on that thread!,you are welcome to come there and chat,Its seems that they made me their Taralabs go to guy,I really know alot about all there products very well!,we also talk alot about eanything analog there too,if you have questions about that and tubes,we have a couple of go to guys for that there as well! Happy listening!