But the Coda is not a bright sounding amp and your speakers are, so IMO you’re now just hearing more of your speaker’s inherent characteristics (along with several of the other significant benefits the Coda is providing) after swapping out the more colored/veiled Mac amp and hence why you’re now hearing more clarity and openness. How you choose to tame their brightness be it through amp, pre, etc. is obviously up to you, but I would not blame the Coda here.
Focal Kanta 2 and CODA 16 amp
Hello All,
My audio system was sounding really good but I felt the need to go further and recently upgraded a McIntosh MC152 amp to a Coda 16. What was missing? A certain bit of clarity, the ability to place instruments in the soundstage, and an amp that is consistent in quality with the rest of my equipment.
McIntosh is one of the amplifiers that pairs well with my Focal Kanta 2s. I thought about a more powerful McIntosh but didn’t go there, heard a Luxman M900u in a dealer’s showroom that was OK, but a demo of the Coda turned my head. The Coda is an eye-opener in the clarity and power it brings to the system, but it has thrown the balance off. I am now struggling to overcome some brightness with certain music (not all), a slight edge that I had previously managed to defeat by changing cables, rolling tubes in my preamp and adding the Mac.
My listening space is not ideal and can use acoustic treatment to tame the highs, but things sounded pretty good before. The focus and bulk of time (say 85%) is with home theatre, but when I play two channel, I want it to be high quality. An obvious path is to correct my mistake, sell the Coda and look elsewhere. Another alternative is to keep this excellent amp and get a different (warmer?) preamp to better match the Coda (must have HT bypass and XLR connections), or perhaps something like a MiniDSP with Dirac to tweak the sound. I'm even contemplating warmer speakers to replace the Kantas, but that means three speakers (L/C/R) for home theatre.
I appreciate any words of wisdom or solace from Kanta and/or Coda owners on a strategy to manage this issue. Thanks,
Robert
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@soix , fair enough. The Coda is presenting more than was available before. Thus, overall, the upgrade has brought good news and not so good news. Btw, re: the SmoothLan, I have a Muon Pro network filter in the chain. At this point, while I'm swapping power cables, I might as well swap the Muon and the Eno2 in my home theatre setup to see if there is a difference. Thanks, Robert |
Robert, I'm a Focal owner so maybe I can help. It's widely accepted that Mac gear is polite and rolls off the highs. I'm not familiar with your amp but it sounds like it's giving you a full presentation of the highs. Focals have accurate tweeters and are very sensitive to directivity. Not so much toe in/out but rake. Try setting them up with minimal toe in and increase the backwards rake. So instead of having the spikes or footers an equal height off the floor, make the front spikes a little longer. Play with this and you should find that it smooths out the HFs. The added bonus is that it should add height to your sound stage. Good luck and cheers. |
@rick_n , I read your suggestion elsewhere and thought it worthwhile. I have the speakers on IsoAcoustic footers and they are aimed as high as I can get them; it helped. I've played with toe in versus straight ahead and it makes a subtle but not big difference, but every positive step is a win. Thanks. I am coming to accept and understand that the Coda is doing what a high quality amp should: present ALL the music. My dilemma is whether I want to hear it all, or sacrifice some highs towards a more relaxed sound. |
So Meitner into Backert with AZ Absolute Copper and cardas into Coda? Meitner is not bright. Coda isn’t either. Nit familiar with Backert sound. But your equipment is basically passing all the information to your speakers. The Focals have a be tweeter that’s known to present an issue for some listeners. Your McIntosh amp was homogenizing all recordings and created a sense of smoothness in high frequencoes. Coda is transparent, fast and articulate. Oh and other suggestion….try Meitner direct into coda using AZ interconnects. If you are running Backert into Coda balanced it may not be ideal match. Worth a shot also worth trying backert into coda using RCA interconnects
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