B&W speakers sounding very harsh?


Hey guys, brand new here.

So I recently got a new sound system for my game room. Keep in mind as I'm explaining everything that I'm brand new to the world of sound systems and how they work.

Here's what I'm using: I have a Marantz SR7015, a pair of B&W 702 S2's that are being powered from a Rotel amp (can't remember the model) , 700 series center channel, 600 series rears (the anniversary edition) and the 1000w sub. I also have 4 overhead speakers that are no B&W's.

The system sounds amazing! .....except for one thing. The highs sound very harsh on certain songs. It's almost like I hear a crackling if that makes sense but even putting my ears up to the speakers I can't pinpoint it. A good example is T.N.T. by AC/DC, when I listen to this song it's almost like I can hear a buzzing or crackling coming from somewhere (watch me explooooooooooode!) and the highs of the song sound very grating. Again, I'm having difficulty pinpointing what it could be and I listen to some songs and they sound just fine.

Keep a few things in mind. A. The sound system is relatively new and the sound system has probably 60 total hours of play time. I've read that these systems do require break in time. I also started from scratch learning how to configure everything (it took me 2 days before I figured out how to get sound of the speakers turned on) so it's possible I may have the tweeters turned up too high.

Based on the limited info I was able to give, does anyone have any advice? TY!
vgundam21
I am not in the camp that BW speakers are bright.


We can't really make blanket statements about the B&W house sound from the Matrix series to today.

Truth is their curves have changed somewhat.

Best

E
Agree with the suggestion of using only the main L & R for music. Using the same setting for the subwoofer for both music & movies is doomed to disappoint; most subs can do either, but not both without different settings. There should be user presets on your Marantz that changes settings (low/high pass & level) depending upon the source and/or type of source, ie 2.0 vs multi-channel.
Some people find audio over HDMI is a bit edgy compared to S/PDIF, but most do not. Good luck and welcome to the forum.