2. amps-preamps
  3. 1043613580

I'm depressed, my system hurts my ears.Please help

I've been enjoying my stereo for quite some time now, but my latest component addition is hurting my ears. My system is as follows:

Music Hall CD25 CD player
McIntosh MC2105 amp (30 year old amp)
Joseph Audio RM22si signatures
Signal Cable Analog 2 interconnects
Kimber 4TC biwired speaker cable
Denon AVR1700 HT receiver as preamp

With the Denon the system sounded pretty good, but it was the obvious weak link, and was actually performing its own unnecessary A to D to A conversion). I swapped the Denon for a Creek OBH12 passive. I added the Creek because in my careful, volume leveled comparisons of the Denon compared to no pre at all, no pre was much cleaner and more natural (I an use no pre because amp has volume knobs).

So I put in the Creek passive to keep that clarity along with switching and an easy volume control, but now I can't sit in the sweet spot of my speakers and listen, because my ears start to hurt at volume levels that used to be just fine. Is this clipping due to an impedance matching problem? Is this just me receiving the full spectrum of the sound and my ears can't handle it? I remember having a similar problem with a very nice car stereo I installed, it sounded very good but always hurt my ears compared to my worse sounding older car stereo.

I almost wish I had never started down the audiophile path, this is depressing. It's tough to do swapping style comparisons because once my ears start hurting, any music will make them hurt until they have a chance to recover. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
matt8268

Showing 1 response by rapogee

rapogee
256 posts
 
Well I wish I could be there to assist you!
You seem to like the softer sound of music. Try other preamps and maybe consider MIT cables eventhought the Kimber is super but MIT might soften it up a little for your taste.
Try some tube preamps which might mate you Mac a little better, used ARC are often a good choice and they are fairly priced in the used market! An older single bit dac might help as well if you want to keep the cost down. Like the Micormega DAC or the alchemy Dac 1.0 (single bit)!
If carefully shopped, you might do the trick and keeping the cost down. I am not sure if this is what you were looking for but I hope I helped. Good luck!
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