It's not the sound I want!

I suggest before spending alot of money, to work on your speaker placement or room response. If your room overemphises high mids/low trebles it can be fatiguing, and acoustic and electric guitars will sound edgy or shrill. I am a guitar player and am very picky about tone, and I have never had a problem with guitar tone with my c.d. players. Maybe I've just been lucky.

I want to thank you all for your taking the time to post a response. I believe I received a lot of good information. I borrowed a Meridian 508.24 cd player and tried it with my system. The difference was not as much as I expected. There was a bit more air and transparency, and I found it to be smoother on some recordings that were quiet, like Kieth Jarret's new album of solo piano. Otherwise to me the sound was very close and at this time, I don't think worth the extra $3000. I am considering a used Meridian or Wadia 830 if I find the right deal, but on the whole I would say that this experience has helped me to appreciate the sound I have now. I also played with speaker location and found that greater toe in reduces the harsh sound I was hearing. I know there are some acoustic problems with my room, but as it is my living room, and the system already dominates, I am limited in what I can do there. I will post soon and ask for advice on this topic. I have also played with cables and interconnects (Cardas Golden Cross) and found that there is not a noticable difference here. The Jenalabs are actually more nuetral and have all the same good qualities. Thanks Again, Blbloom

Just to re-iterate what's been said from another Krell 300i owner. I would look at the cdplayer as your problem. I have an average cd player (Sony ES85 with an Audio Alchemy DITB) and sometimes experience what you describe. When I listen to the same CD recording on vinyl the brightness goes away. It happens mostly on your average rock recordings for me. That said, I have had the Levinson 39 and the Theta Miles hooked up to my Krell and the sound was glorious on every recording I tried. The Krell does take careful matching from the digital I think auditioning some good CD players will show that to you. Good luck.

*all* cd players are the problem. pick up a cheap tubed buffer-stage for the cd. like the z-man ase, or the musical fidelity (X-10?), then spend ~$1k on pretty much *any* analog set-up you can find, new *or* used. it will blow into the weeds *any* cd set-up at *any* price. if ya have more to spend on the analog set-up, so much the better. perhaps one of those new (i.e. cheaper than dcs) digital up-samplers would help out your cd's also...

Your metallic acoustic sounds like the problem I had with violins: they sounded sweet but shiny, like they were made of silver. The solution for me was AtmaSphere M60's and a Metronome CD/DAC combo with a tube output stage. Now the fiddles sound like wood. Bought all used on Audiogon. I tend to focus on the amps before anything else, but I know that opinions differ on that point.