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My system is bright? I need help. thanks

Hi. it is my first time here in this forum. i would appreciate input and help from all of you. No sacrasm or bad langauge please. I had bad experience with other forums in that aspect. music loving people and audiophiles should be an elite, high caliber and classy community. This is rare to find today. Ok Down to the point.

My system
Musical fidelity kw 500 sacd player. I use the tube output.
Musical fidelity kw 500 integrated amp.
speakers:eggleston andra (not andra 2)
speaker cable: satori acoustic zen
interconnects: Nordost baldur and nordost quatrofil RCA
USe a dedicated 20 amp line with regular power cords(came with the gear) and a panamax 20 amp surge protector and filter.

This is in my family room so there is little room for treatment and moving things around.

problem: bright. the highs are killing my ears, after 1-2 hours of listening my ears start to hurt,sometimes 3 minutes. I have to turn the volume down. I tried postioning, it got a little better. I will try acoustic zen silver ref II may be it will help. The sound is otherwise phenomenal, i could be happy with more bass, but overall it is very good. Depth, tranparency, acuity and soundstaging are great. As for mids, i can see the person infront of me,I can hear the articulation of the tongue in the mouth before the words and tunes comes out. no kidding, but not for long because of fatigue.

I would really appreciate your input.
Scientist73
scientist73

Showing 4 responses by ryder

ryder
1,687 posts
 
I agree with Tvad wholeheartedly. Speaker placement and the room itself have the most impact on the perceived brightness apart from your electronics. Cables have the least effect and should only be addressed when you've sort out the rest ie. speaker positioning, room and electronics.

I've just recently got some new speakers and just fiddling around with the placement produced a larger difference than swapping CD players and DAC's.
ryder
1,687 posts
 
Since you have tried various speaker placement and the brightness is still prevalent, it's down to the electronics. The synergy between your speakers and the Musical Fidelity amp, in my opinion and some others, is the culprit. You can of course try wires since they are the cheapest solution, but if you could get someone to loan you a Krell or McCormack amp(noticed a few users who drive the Andra with Krell FPB's) then the much better since you would then be able to know how your speakers would interact with the right electronics, or vice versa. You can check out users who have similiar speakers here in their virtual systems and get some opinions from them.

I was in a dilemma once as there was a mismatch between my amp and speakers, and I have to choose which one to go despite my initial intention to keep them both. In my case there was too much warmth and I wanted more detail and transparency. Eventually I have chosen my amp to stay and got new speakers. FYI I have tried cables in an attempt to salvage things too but in the end figured out a *component* need to be replaced.

Good luck in your cable marathon......
ryder
1,687 posts
 
Tvad, you've summed it up nicely. Speaker positioning is not the only issue he didn't get optimum sound from his system. He didn't have a dedicated room and most importantly there is little or no provisions made to room treatments as brought up earlier in the thread, which is the single most important parameter that can make or break a system. We don't know about his room acoustics nor can we make any accurate judgements based on pictures alone. I believe since he cannot improve on these, he had no choice but to resort to other alternatives as what he's been currently doing. Well, at least there are some perceived improvements now and hope he don't go burning too much holes in his pockets along the process.
ryder
1,687 posts
 
Think you've answered your own problem. Since you've got good results with your previous gear in the same room, it is obvious that your current ultra-revealing electronics have too much of a good thing. You didn't get any brightness in your previous setup because the Grand Pianos are warm and forgiving speakers, and can still sound acceptable to you in the same room. You should have upgraded just the speakers, probably to Cremona instead of revamping your whole system, but then that's history.

I would suggest not being hasty in making any decisions at the moment and stay put for the time being. Placing your system in an unfinished room, especially on concrete floor is a disaster. Since you already have the basement in planning, why don't wait till it's finished then shift your whole setup in that room? Evaluation in a proper room would be the best. Basics had to be addressed before moving on to other things, and if it still sounds bright after that then figure out what to do next from there. More planning is certainly necessary for your *expensive* equipment.
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