What am I to do about


I have been trying to fix the harsh sound of my system. I have tried the following components: Record Player - Old Sony w/ Grado cartridge, CD player - Arcam CD72 & old Philips unit, PreAmp - Halfer DH110 & Adcom GTP 500II & Classe CP50, PowerAmp - Halfer DH220 & Odyessy Stratus, Speaker - Paradigm Studio 100v2 & JM Lab Electra 915, Speaker cable - Monster & Audioquest, Interconnects - various, Room - 3 different ones.
All of the various combination seem to be vary harsh sounding to me since I got rid of my old Polk Audio speakers (don't remember the model) 5 years ago. The only idea I have is that my ears are incompatible with aluminum dome tweeters and I need to find different speakers but I am tired of experimenting by buying and selling and I have already tried the 2 dealers within 3 hours of here. What can I do? Sell everything and buy a boombox? Help
cford

Showing 2 responses by gmood1

Cford what types of music do you listen to and who are the record labels ? I see plenty of folks blame their equipment for just bad recordings.Unfortuntely some recordings are just not made well.It maybe time to bring out the tone controls.The more revealing your system becomes the more you will notice it.You could do like some and buy a tuby preamp and smooth things over. A preamp with good tone controls would probably do the trick.This way you could adjust it to your liking.

Also whats the toe in on your speakers? You may want to toe them out a bit.I see people say the room is important..which is true. But what about the recordings.The recordings are also important. Some of them you just have to take them how they are or toss them ! LOL

Maybe one of these days all record labels will be on track like Chesky,Blue Note,Telarc,Rounder and Verve.
Until then I will continue to be very selective of the recordings I buy.I listen to mass market in the car!

Good Luck!
You speak of sibilance.This is common on older and some newer mass market recordings.The Stratos nor the Paradigm 100's have this built in.You may want to buy that boombox.
I can't imagine how all your gear can have this.Have you tried some form of power conditioning on your sources ?