Mixed Results from My Hifi

Hammergjh,

Yes. I used to own the CDM 9NT speakers and as I recall, they were just a touch bright in the lower treble, as you have noticed. I think that coupled to your Krell solid-state integrated you may not be getting the most synergistic sound.

My guess is that a Monarchy Audio M24 DAC/linestage will give you a smoother and more musical sound. It may soften the bass slightly (not diminish, just soften), but this could be a very acceptable alternative. I think very highly of the M24, especially when fitted with the Siemens E88CC tubes. It has very good build quality, sound quality, and it's a very attractive component, as well...

I agree with Boa2 that it's likely the problem stems from the equipment and the room acoustics. I think people who say that so many of their recordings sound poor because their system's are sooooo revealing are kidding themselves. The vast majority of recordings can sound pleasing if the system and room acoustics will allow it. I have a very resolving system and only a very small portion of all my recordings sound poor. The bulk of my recordings sound either very good or spectacular. This is what you should be shooting for.

In this poster's case, certain solutions were offered that could work well. Changing equipment, using a tube DAC, using an equalizer, and looking at room treatments, especially to address early reflections, could all work very well.

I would probably look at options for room treatments first, try the tube DAC and/or different amp second (fine-tuning the system cabling [interconnects in particular] might also help considerably). The EQ route would represent a viable option if the other measures failed or were not possible due to the dreaded WAF...