Help me tame the brightness of my Triangles


I bought a pair of Triangle Zerius speakers a month ago, and in some ways they're the most amazing speakers I've listened to. Incredibly open, detailed, fast, and dynamic (as advertised).

But I also find them to be too bright and too hard for my ears, at least with a good amount of my music. I've taken care of the obvious things, like break-in (approaching 300 hours now) and matching with a warm system (Rega planet 2000 cd player, Unison Research Unico integrated amp with Mullard cv4003 tubes). I put little thought into cables .. i'm currently using straight wire rhapsody 2 interconnects and 20 feet of audioquest gr8 speaker cables.

The hardness comes in the upper midrange/lower trebble, typically at high or moderately high volumes, and typically on vocals and guitars. Especially if the recording is at all aggressive. The brightness is just an overall sense of the tonal balance. It seems lighter weight than what I hear in live music. I expect the music to have more weight and roundness (this is why I have the Planet and the Unico to begin with).

I've played with position and toeing in. My room is large (about 16 x26 feet with 10 to 11 foot ceilings). It's slightly bright and splashy, although i believe most of what I'm hearing is the direct sound of the speakers (the tonal balance is the same when I get real close).

I'm wondering about new interconnects .. perhaps cardas. the Quadlinks seem like they'd make the most sense. Any thoughts on this? How big a difference they might make? Would the Cardas Cross cables be unreasonably pricey in this system?

I'm also wondering about tubes. The Unico with the mullards has a wonderful, liquidy midrange, and great transients and dynamics. Are there any tubes that might darken the sound and soften the lower trebble without killing detail, dynamics, transients, and soundstaging?

I suspect most people would find my system sounds more balanced than I do ... my ears seem to be pretty sensitive to brightness and hardness. But it still seems strange that these speakers that everyone seems to like can sound bright even with these other componens I've chosen.

Thank you for any thoughts you might have.
paulraphael
Paulraphael, what you are describing about the Triangles is common. The upper mids/lower treble is a bit harsh.

This is related to three things. First, Triangle keeps as much crossover out of the mid - tweeter as they can. Traditionally, a single capacitor(in series with the tweeter) was the only crossover component used in this region by Triangle. They want no intrusion of a capacitor or coil, which in their opinion(and I agree) these components can only slow down the music, reign in dynamics, and change the sound. Secondly, the mids and tweeters overlap more in their speakers than what is usually encountered. The midrange operates as high as it can go, which results in beaming and uneven response which can show up in raggedness and distortion. The tweeter also plumbs down lower than it probably should, again leading to raggedness and distortion. Thirdly, emphasizing with my second point, I find the response of the tweeter to be a bit unsettled in general. Depending on ancillary equipment, volume, musical tastes, and room, this tweeter can easily turn nasty. I find this from a great many metal domes, but factor in the lack of crossover to filter out the lower frequencies the tweeter sees, and you end up with exactly what you describe.

Do not try to do too much other than setting the speakers on a good pair of spikes. Triangle speakers eschew the use of most of the damping and vibration control solution sacred cows of audio. That's the way they are designed. Like a violin or other musical instrument, Triangle speakers(like most speakers before the 1970s), are supposed to "sing along with the music". These resonances and vibrations in no way add up to shrillness or the problems you are seeing.

I would say the first thing you need to do is move away from the StraightWire Rhapsody 2 interconnects. StraightWire has always produced some of the most forward cables in the business, and in many cases, they are downright bright. Most audiophiles no longer talk about or know much about StraightWire these days, but think back to about 1990 and the lightbulb will come on for many. Whether you move to Cardas, or most other copper interconnects(you may also want to think about Alpha Core Goertz or Analysis Plus), I think you will see a fair amount of your problem solved there.

Second, you also need to find a different speaker cable. AudioQuest cables do not nearly spotlight brightness as mush as StraightWire, but they also do nothing to tame it. Again, move to something along the lines of the interconnect you go with.

Most of your problem should be solved by cable. Although I am not the world's biggest advocate of cable solving problems, in your case, I think the solution is appropriate and will work. The combination of cables which highlight detail and speed, coupled with what I laid about the Triangle crossover/tweeter is a recipe for pain.

Apart from my suggestions, it seems wise to also investigate the tube suggestion(can't hurt), but I think cable will be an area which you will need to address in your system regardless of what happens otherwise.
Based on Joe's very informative post, i can see how the problem starts to snowball as volume is pushed harder. While i think that some of this will soften up over time due to speaker break-in, i too would follow the basic path that Trelja recommends.

Personally, i would try different interconnects before i would speaker cables. I think that the AQ stuff is more neutral than the StraightWire stuff and i think Joe does too. As such, start with the cables that will make the most difference right away and work your way down the line from there.

If this were my rig and i was experiencing that specific problem, i would probably aim for some Tara Lab's interconnects. Very warm and smooth and ( depending on model ) slightly reduce upper mids. This is great for getting rid of glare and harshness. You might want to try contacting the Cable Company and see what they have to say. They can give you a pretty educated recommendation based on what they have in stock to suite your situation and save you some money by buying used at the same time. Monster M-1000's might also be a reasonable choice and are available both used and brand new at discounted prices.

Depending on how well the interconnects work towards solving / reducing the problem will tell you how far and if you need to change your speaker cables. Just changing to interconnects that are better suited to your system might be enough for you.

Out of curiosity, how are the conductors of the AQ speaker cable configured ? Changing how the wires are configured in terms of geometry might help things out if they are arrayed as i think they are. Sean
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Not sure what you mean by how they're configured. Are talking about the basic design of the cable?
Paul, I would disagree with recommendations on Cardas interconnects, especially the budget ones like the Cross. Yes, they tend to be warmer than most, but they introduce a veiled sound in the mid range and offer a muddy and ill-defined bass. You may be better off with an Acoustic Zen cable which, I believe, offer much better value and performance (also warmish sounding w/o brightness, but cleaner sounding than intro Cardas cables).

Also, the Black Diamond MK3 (NOT the MK4) cones tend to take some "edge" off the top end. You might want to borrow a set from a local dealer to see if it helps.

As for power cords, I find that it makes a reasonably significant impact on the Rega 2000. I have tried Synergistic, NBS and PS Audio power cords with great success. The result is a quieter and more dynamic sound with improved detail and imaging. I do not think this will fix your brightness problem though.

Good luck!
I have battled the midrange glare and lower treble harshness with great success. I had a pair of JMLAB cobalts which are similarly voiced to your Triangles from what I have heard. My speaker cables were at the time Straightwire Quartets and interconnects were Straightwire Rhapsody 2. I found that my system had too much glare and upper freq's were way too unforgiving. I bought a pair of Cardas Cross speaker cables and Magnan VI intereconnects. Both of these cables are known for there warmish but detailed sound. The cable switch helped make sense of the upper midrange and lower treble...therefore making the overall sound MUCH MORE musical and pleasing to the ears. There was more body to bass and midrange. In my experience the Cardas Cross cables DID NOT veil the midrange or create a muddy bass region. I believe getting a cable upgrade will definitely move you into the right direction, in making your system sound more musical. I also found that my speakers sounded warmer when there is NO toe-in. Don't omit the Quadlinks,I would definitely give those a try.