smoothing those sibilants...

The first changes have been made, and I think I'm on to something. A friend has lent me a pair of Cardas cables, which has made a none-too-subtle difference. At first I thought that the system sounded "darker", but some careful listening is revealing details that were obscured before, just WAY less "sizzle". Right on! The other change made this morning is to remove the little mesh things that live over the tweeters, and reinstalling the grille covers on the speakers. Now why this shoud make such a difference, I don't know, but these two "tweaks" are exactly the type of changes that I'm looking for. Soon I'll have the opportunity to try some cables from Nordost and also Alpha-Core (or is it Goertz, I get confused), and will be trying improved vibration/isolation techniques as well. Better power, too. Anyone in doubt of whether or not cable can make a difference is sure welcome to come over and listen! Thanks again for the posts...

Aldenruss, I am not familiar with the Antique Sound amp. Does it use tubes or is it totally solid state? I ask the question because there are lots of tube changes possible.

For "albertporter", the Antique Sound is all tube, 2x15 (pentode) or 2x5 (triode) using KT88's for the power tubes, and 12ax7's for the input/driver tubes. The power tubes have been upgraded to Svetlana KT88's (thank you to Stewart at Sanctuary of Sound), the input/drivers to JJ Yugo's. You know, when I put up the second post, I thought for sure that people would say that I needed to change some tubes around to get the results that I was looking for. Interestingly, it was speakers, interconnects and power considerations that were mentioned, and if today's experiments were any indication they were right on. That being said, I have read that changing the input tubes of a tube amp will have more effect on the sound than changing the power tubes. Comments and advice are WELCOME!

Aldenruss: Good to see things are improving in your system. You mentioned that your amp has no detachable power cord. In my case, I have changed the plugs in all my power cords for better quality ones. Generally stock power cords don-t have the best plugs so it might be an improvement to consider, you can go to the Watta gate type or at least Hubbell's (I'm using 5266C plugs) go for a hospital grade wall plate (Hubbell has worked fine for me) and if your house wiring has been around for some time change the breakers in the panel that feed your system. If you don't feel comfortable doing this (safety first) you can those changes be made .Regards

Aldenruss, the 12AX7 tubes will be a big change in sound in your system, depending on which ones you are running. The JJ Yugo's are better than some, but certainly not up to the NOS classic tubes like Telefunken, Mullard and Amperex. The Telefunken is what I would try with the Svetlana KT88 output tubes. I would love to hear your response after plugging in a set and listening to your favorite music again.