Frustrated with the sound of my system


Here is my system:
Rotel RCD-965BX CD Player as transport
MSB Link 2 DAC
Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 Signature preamp
Classe 10 amplifier
North Creek Audio Borealis speakers (Custom built kit speaker...something close to a Proac Response 2.5 design)
M&K V-75 sub
Kimber and Cardas interconnects
Kimber 4TC/8TC bi-wire speaker cables.

Here is my frustration:
The sound, regardless of music, sounds stringent, hard, really lacks air, and is anything but relaxed. It is fatigueing. I can listen to my Grado 60 headphones on an iPod and the sound is frustratingly more relaxed and has what I would call air.

I don't think that my system is that outstanding, but it really seems like I should be more pleased with what I am hearing.

I would be interested in your thoughts on where the most likely opportunity is. I really like the individual components of the system (OK the Rotel/MSB set up is old and just OK), but all together they seem to be underwhelming. I am thinking it is either in improving the digital front end (new player or DAC) or moving to a planar speaker to get the sound I desire. I have thought about new player like an OPPO 93 or 95, perhaps a tube based player or DAC, or else looking at something like a used pair of Maggie 12's or 1.6's. I have always enjoyed the Maggie sound.

In either case I am thinking that $2k is the absolute max I would want to spend on any solution. Thanks in advance. If there are other questions I would be glad to supply details.
stuartbmw3

Showing 2 responses by mtrot

Over the years, I have posted several questions about possible things I might be able to do to improve my sound quality. Some questions were about speakers, some about amps, and so on. On almost every thread, advice was strongly given to treat the room. Well, the other day, I put about a 4' by 4' section of insulation on the right wall in my bedroom system, at the first reflection point. This fairly well sucked the life out of the sound. This is not to advocate against room treatments, and I think a smaller panel might be the ticket. But, apparently, it is very easy to do too much treatment.

Now, I would also recommend trying different speaker cables. The biggest recent improvement I have made in the aforementioned bedroom system(Monitor Audio Silver 9i speakers) was going to a set of Goertz MI-2 speaker cables(I had tried them years before in a different system and were in storage). Before that, I had been using some Morrow SP2 cables which I thought were pretty good on the highs, but I wasn't getting much bass out of the speakers. With the MI-2, however, I now have much more and better bass, great attack on transients, and really clear dialog on movies and vocals. YRMV, of course.