Warmer sounding Solid State

I have been leaning towards the Parasound P6 paired with my modest Adcom 535ii then upgrading to a more legitimate power in the future.


I did look into the Musical Fidelity M3i as well.  I like the idea of a completely analog unit.  No DAC, dedicated preamp section and toroidal power transformer.  I think this has the potential to stick around in my system for many more years than the P6.  This is the reason I went with the PM8005 in the first place with all of the “Built like a tank” reviews I read.  


Soundwise I am not sure what differences I will see. 

@bpoletti Warmer sounding because my speakers have a bit of gain in the upper registers.  I am looking for a power option that will balance them out.

@aniwolfe
Yes I have.  Will it help??  I ordered one and am actually expecting it to get delivered today.  A very modest Furman AC-215A.  On the cheap, but I just wanted to see if it would help the situation. 


You see, I have a Peachtree Nova 150 setup next to the Marantz PM8005 right now and have been going back and forth between the two.  The Peachtree pulls out those brittle top end tendencies a little more than the PM8005, and generally I like the sound of the Marantz quite a bit better.  It has a better sound stage and sounds a little more natural to my ear.  However, I am eager to see if a bit of power conditioning helps the Peachtree and evens the playing field. 

Would speaker cables help with this top end brittleness too?  I am currently using a some 12awg 99.95% Oxygen free cable that I put banana ends on.  Not the best, but not the worst either.  

@bpoletti

That's a bummer.  I just ordered these speakers.  I gotta give them a little more time before I off them. 


I just tried them using a Nuforce DDA-120 that was powering my desktop setup and they sounded much better.  I then added the power conditioner which got delivered today and they really opened up.  Much better sound stage, transparency and depth.  The highs are still forward, but controlled not.


I then tried the Peachtree on the power conditioner and got some pretty good results.  Again, much better detailed highs.  Nice and accurate and definitely less abrasive.  Sound stage was much better and I also saw the same increase in transparency and depth.  Now we are getting somewhere!

I have some technical issues with the Peachtree as well.  The high frequency noise that some others on the internet reported coming from the unit itself is indeed real.  It is not an issue when listening, but a thorn in my subconscious non the less.  I also sometimes get a burst of white noise when switching from active digital inputs.  Cringe-worthy. 

 I am using the Pm8005 in home theater bypass mode, and unfortunately to switch it in and out of this mode you need to hold down the button on the front of the unit for three seconds. which is a minor inconvenience, but an inconvenience none the less.



The main problem though is that the remote controls For both my receiver and the pm8005 control both units.  So it is impossible  to control the volume of  The PM 8005 without controlling the volume of the receiver as well.  Changing inputs on the receiver remote also results in input changes on the PM8005

I am liking the way the Nuforce DDA-120 Sounds with the power conditioner on it. 



Like I mentioned before, I'm beginning to believe that the top end (treble) problem I've been having wasn't really that there was too much top end or that the top end was too "forward' or "harsh", but more so that it was uncontrolled. 



I think now that I have this power conditioner in my setup I am hearing the same AMOUNT of treble, but it is no longer harsh because it is more controlled and the signal is cleaned up.  It now sounds more "delicate" up top. 



I still need to find something else to power these because the Nuforce will eventually have to go back into my desktop setup and I would like to have a little more power for these Dali Oberon's than the modest 50watts into 8ohms that the DDA-120 puts out.  I DO like the simplicity of the DDA.  Will the NAD C368 sound similar?