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My stereo receiver is a little too bright. Can a cable help me out?

I just had my vintage Pioneer SX-1050 refurbished.  I had a severe case of sticker shock when presented with the bill - oops!!  Which unfortunately pretty much forces me to use it. 

I will say It is sounding very powerful which is no big surprise because there is a lot of horsepower under the hood.  But the audio impression is that it’s also a little too bright.  The only way I know to tame brightness is with the right interconnects.  But I’m not experienced in that area.  Recommendations would be most welcome.


It’s probably important to know how I am using  the Pioneer SX-1050.  It is responsible for all audio in my TV system.  My choice of music is almost exclusively opera and classical.  

 I send the HDMI signal from my four sources ( TV-DVR, OPPO DVD, ROKU streamer and Pioneer Elite Laser Disc Player ) to my AVR, an ARCAM SR-250, and I send the respective analog audio signals to the Pioneer.  I am into opera and classical music and I didn’t think my ARCAM AVR sounded as good as I wanted it to, even though it’s ideally  suited to my needs, a two-channel product touted for its exceptional audio.  The audio is good but definitely not great.  Prior to deciding to refurbish it I had paired the Pioneer with a Musical Fidelity A3cr Preamp, using the Pioneer just as an amplifier, and I was getting very good audio that way.  But one of the goals of the refurbishment project was to feature the Pioneer and eliminate the musical influence of the Musical Fidelity preamp.   And now, after spending so much,  I wanted to hear how my now very expensive Pioneer sounded, so I pulled the Musical Fidelity Pre and attached my sources directly to the Pioneer.  Currently all the interconnects are Blue Jeans Cable.  Obviously I can’t spend huge amounts replacing cables for all four sources, so the DVD is priority.
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geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I had Fulton Nuance speakers and had TG Audio speaker cables I traded Bob Crump for. 🤗
grm
149 posts
 
Hello,
Some great advice on this thread! I would like to share an experience I had with an old Theta DAC (Pro Basic III). The Theta was very aggressive, bright and in your face hyperactive, at least in my system and in my perception. I was using Kimber Silver Streak IC's that I feel were not a good match with the Theta. To remedy the problem I purchased an entry level Cardas IC, it completely remedied the problems I was perceiving, it completely calmed the Theta down with a much more relaxed presentation without giving up on resolution. I am one who appreciates symmetry, in other words, using the same IC's throughout as I do today. However in this instance, switching out an interconnect with another led to a very positive experience.

Good luck and take into consideration all of the suggestions. I am pretty new to this Hobby/Passion and most likely not as knowledgeable as others, but at least I can share this experience with you.  

julianstevens
6 posts
 

A pair of fixed value cement resistors, in series with the input terminals to your tweeters (assuming your speakers have separate terminals just for their tweeters), is likely to be the best solution, primarily because they're almost certainly considerably more transparent than the tone controls fitted to a unit built 20+ years ago.  Some experimentation will be required to find the correct value, but cement resistors are so cheap that it'll hardly matter.

Changing your speaker cables might do the trick, but two wrongs won't make a right.

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