My system is bright? I need help. thanks

One of the thing biggest things that can cause excessive brightness, other than component selection/synergy is the speakers radiation pattern. Speakers which have a broad dispersion pattern can suffer from 1st reflection point induced distortion which can cause fatigue. Toeing them in helps with some speakers BUT many speakers are hot when you listen on, or close to on, axis. You clear up the 1st reflection distortion quite a bit, but then the speaker becomes 'bright'.

A potential solution for this exists with very little if any down side and should work with your speakers. Try rotating your speakers inward until the axis of the speakers (draw an imaginary perpendicular line from the tweeter) cross a couple of feet in front of your head and see what happens.

You've probably eliminated side wall reflections and your listening to the tweeters output at a reduced level (actually its at about the same level as if it were pointed straight ahead, as so many manufacturers of high resolution speakers recommend.

Try it, if it doesn't work (or it looks too odd) then you can move on to other solutions. There are other benefits to this type of toe in and very few, if any drawbacks. Best of all it costs zip and takes about one minute to try!

Scientist73, Glad playing with toe in helped a bit.

There was a recent thread "Acoustic Treatments - What, how much and where" - which you might find very interesting. Its lengthy with a lot of opinions (as always) however it does have some good information which you may use. It just came up on the site today with an additional post.

There have been a lot of opinions in this post about your equipment not being synergetic or suitible for your environment. Before you start to chase improved sound by changing cables, PC, etc, bear in mind that most such changes result in minor tonal changes compared to different components. Such changes are, with only a few exceptions, good as tweeks for a reasonably tuned system, they don't solve underlying problems if the components are not synergetic, which you might ultimately find to be the case (from what I've read about your components I think they might be less than an optimum combination FOR MY TASTES, for just the reason you complain. But only you can decide what you want to hear and decide what sounds best to you in your room!

Don't spend any of your hard earned money until you have optomized your speakers set up and room. Take your time! The closer you come to perfect the longer it will take you to focus on the differences - and I'm talking days, weeks, and untimately months. Also, read as much as you can about proper speaker set up and look up some of the various theories and sites that deal with set up. There is a LOT to learn about this subject.

If you think I can be of any more assistance, ask on-line or off (e-mail) I'll be glad to try.

Tvad, The problem in trying to help Scientist73 is fundamentally we don't have a basic undertanding of his room. We don't even really know its dimensions, we don't know where his listening position possibilities are, ad infinitum ad naseum.

I think a major factor which is not being considered is that these are 3 way speakers and I doubt they were intended to be used as 'nearfield' monitors. My last speakers (before Tylers) were a three way system using Dynaudio drivers, much as the Andrea's. When you listen in the nearfield the tweeter predominates the sound as the tweeter is closer to you and it has not really blended with the mid and woof.

I would guess that these speakers would sound best if the drivers were about 9 to 10 feet apart, the listening position was 10' back and the speakers were 4 to 5 ft from the wall behind them. By crossing the axis of the speakers as I suggested earlier you can actually get close side wall placement, there is no sonic downside to close sidewall placement other than these reflections.

Unfortunately we do not what is even possible. I suspect that he has room set up limitations, or he has some asthetic limitations, or sonic predispositions, which he has not told us about.

But, Scientist73, you would not be the first person to discover the hard way that buying highly regarded equipment and plunking it down in a room that it sounds poorly and then tries to patch it together with different stuff, without understanding and attacking basic set up issues first, and ultimately after gaining an education the hard way (money and time wise) ends up essentially starting from scratch. Been there, done that! I think many of us have, especially us set up freaks. :-)

FWIW, Scientist73, time to start getting analytical about your problems. There really is no quick cure for your problems if you really want to get the value out of your present equipment. If you really want some help from this forum, take a moment to provide a concise description of your room, its openings, its furnishings including locations of windows, furniture, etc. Just put it in words with descriptive descriptions. We can draw diagrams in our minds. There are some very knowlegable set up folks here who can help, but everyone is presently shooting in the dark in trying to help you.

FWIW :-)

Tvad, You are right of course.

Other than to ask the manufacturer/designer of the specific speaker what the minimum recommended listening distance was, the only way you can find out is to move your speakers and sweet seat about and you have tried all of the possible set up possibilities.

The best one can do, absent the ability to actually listen to the speaker, or talk to the manufacturer, is make an educated guess. You will note in my comment I specifically said "I doubt" and I gave some simple reasons for my "doubts". I have other reasons as well, but they only rise to the level of an educated guess as well.

However, the purpose of the comment, and this conincides, I believe, with the spirit of your rebuke, was to get Scientis73, to look at other options beside nearfield listening and buying new equipment, of any type, prematurely.

Scientist73, Most of the folks on this forum accept E-Mails. I suggest you send an E-Mail to each of the persons you would like to hear from and include your diagram as an attachment. Just click on the members moniker.

Ain't this fun!..........

Scientist73, Perhaps its just me, but I would suggest that, as you originally suggested, a diagram would be wonderful.

Scientist73,

Cello made high quality and expensive products. Probably very few here have ever heard them, and even fewer with the Eggleston speakers. I'd take odds that no one has! Don't buy them unless YOU hear them first with your speakers in your home! Also bear in mind that you may need at sometime service on these amps. Will you be able to get it?

May I suggest that you do something simple. Start a new thread and ask folks who have Egglestons Andrea's what they are using as amps and pay attention to their sonic preferrences so you can see if their value system matches yours.

Good luck.........