Can "Dark"Sounding Speakers Be "Brightened"UP???


One of my buds has a pair of the original Sonus Faber Concertino speakers(bi-wireable)partnered with a Peachtree Audio Decco,driven by a HP Laptop & cabled with all Audioquest copper cables(usb,power & speaker).While listening to my new Toy Monitors & Peachtree Audio MusicBox driven by an Asus Laptop recently he commented that he was able to hear treble frequencies(especially cymbals)on my system much better than on his & wondered if anything short of changing speakers could be done.
I have read that Silver Plated Copper cables tend to sound a touch brighter than all copper & was wondering if you folks think switching to all Silver Plated Copper(i'm thinking Nordost or DH Labs)cables might bring the treble up a bit in his system?
Thanks for your input,take care...
freediver

Showing 2 responses by mechans

You can emphasize certain qualities by making cable choices. Silver tends to highlight the treble energy that is there. Also you amplification as already changed to pure SS and class D inparticular can bring out the treble in some systems. I have had to go the other rout trying to warm up and fill out my sound which I think I did well in my system.
Some of what other posters have said have got me thinking that you may just have a very warm midrange speaker that nothing can alter to the point where you will be satisfied.
OTOH I have a specific cable suugestion to try which are the all high purity solid silver cable called Silver Lace by Homegrown Audio. They are not overly expensive in the era of precious metal haording. If you have money to spare then the Silver version of the OHNO cast crystal silver cable may work as well or better.
I bought Jena labs pure copper for speaker speaker cables used they were still big money to me. I am pretty sure she is making a cast braided silver cable these days but again they aren't cheap. Jena is by no means very expensive compared to some others so it's not an outrageous compararitively either. There are other manufacturers that use it VanDenhalland several others (sp?) If you search you'll foind the others.
Ultimately all this tweaking I did, did not give me the sound I really wanted. I was fixed on keeping my JM Lab Focals and the I got a chance to buy some relatively potent tube monoblock poweramps.on the cheap I did so The search was over but I always wanted a 6SN7 preamp because I collect them and had only driver slots on an integrated to use them in,So a I snatched an AE-3 preamp(a Cary subdivision) which use 6SN7s to do the amplification and some other jobs in the pre.
I was simply delighted with the results all I wanted and more. My audio buddies always asked what did you do to those speakers they are sounding great ? I told them nothing.
So the posters sayit may be your amp might be right. Still others saying you can't make the seakers a bit leaner may be right. Thus do try several amps. My personal audio victory took years and lot of amps.
If you decide to try tubes get a modern pre or power amp they have sparkle and life and they aren't your Dads Fisher/ Pilot/ etc. I could hekp you optimize the tube choices if you take the plunge.
The amp should really have plenty of sizzle so it's surprising try a different pair speakers and see if it is the speaker. Otherwise the next question is what speaker should I buy.-Panels?? I don't like a lot of treble energy. I like speed transparency and stage wich my system has, it is by no means a sludgy dark overly warm sound. All the effort I (and $) I did spend was to rid my system of harshness and digital hash, even from my TT. Hey it's an adventure, If you buy the easy tweaks first go ahead but the DSP I looked up and it cost 900 euros, big money.
Good luck a lot of probably fun times await while you experiment your way into a more enjoyable system.