2. misc-audio
  3. 994209925

Upper Midrange Glare problem

I am seeking advice to eliminate hard upper midrange glare. I spent alot of money and the sound improved, but the glare is still present. Is there something wrong with my set up, or etc? My systems is as follows:

Counterpoint DA 11.5 transport with Shunyata King Cobra.
Sonic Frontiers SFD 2 MK II DAC with Shunyata Black Mamba.
Sonic Frontiers SFL 1 Signature Pre Amp with Shunyata Viper.
All above components connected to the PS Audio P300 with a Shunyata King Cobra attached to it.

Bryston 7B ST Mono block with PS Audio Lab Cables connected to two Ultimate outlets which is connected to XLO Type 10 powercords to the wall outlet.

Speakers PSB Stratus Gold, placed 3 ft away from rear wall 2 1/2 ft from side wall, room is 15'wide 21'deep
8 1/2tall. Listening distance is 9 ft away from speakers.

Cables:
Digital - Illuminati D60 - BNC and Illuminati DX-50 - XLR
Interconnects - AudioQuest Diamond X2 - RCA
Speaker Cables - AudioQuest Dragon to highs and Clear 3 to bass.
All Cables are raised by ceramic tiles.

Brights star foundation platforms, tip toes, for each component sitting on a Stand design rack, set of room tunes corners, side walls and tune stripes.

New additions will be XLO limited edition XLR digital cable and Siemens CCa tubes for SFD 2 MK II. Will be here shortly.

Very fraustrated. Any suggestions will be openly noted, thanks.

bowlerds
aragain
39 posts
 
I'll pass this along for what it's worth.

While I'm not sure what you hear as "upper midrange glare" I had a problem with instruments like violins and sax's. They were so screechy and glaring I just couldn't listen to them.

After a bunch of equipment changes I have come to believe the problem is actually my room.

Using an equalizer with real-time display I have determined that there is a large (about 6db) peak at 1000hz in my room.

Speaker position doesn't change it. Amps don't change it. Different speakers don't change it. It seems like some frequencies are being sucked out and the room just rings at 1000hz.

For now, even though I have some pretty fancy gear, I use an equalizer to take away that peak and everything is fine.

If you can borrow some equipment it would probably be worth a shot at taking some measurements.

Hope this helps.
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
The setup basically looks good; how about addressing some room treatment?
leafs
414 posts
 
A tube amp could possibly help.
Aragain is also on the right track.Could be the room.
Also could try different tubes in the pre amp.
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
have you tried different cables and ic's? that's where i'd start my quest (pun intended). -kelly
hiwaves
43 posts
 
The answer is in your speaker cables. To remedy this problem you can assemble a minimum eight (8) foot length of 4awg (gauge) pure copper wire and replace ALL of your speaker cables. This will eliminate the shrill glare that you hear in your system. Continuing to use the cables you have now could in fact damage the drivers because they are denied sufficient power and are working at their limit. The difference in cable capacitance has a direct effect on the sound the drivers are able to reproduce.
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