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Taming the Shrill..."brightness"...look upstream first??? long

Posted by Mark Man (A) on January 6, 2015 at 10:17:42

Several threads lately have been addressing "bright" sounding speakers in small rooms being unlistenable...

Here are some of my experiences of upstream culprits...the speakers just being prisoners of, "you are what you eat"...

1. New Amps...EAD PowerMaster 2000, SMC Audio rev A. DNA Deluxe limited addition and Bryston 4B ST...ALL unlistenable when plugged in...the EAD/SMC took about 200+ hours before the shrill was gone...The Bryston was a dealer demo for the weekend and NEVER got any better, to the point I thought there might be something wrong with the amp...it was harsh...bad harsh...this was into a pair of 1.6's, which have never sounded shrill before...

2. Had my 1.6's refurbished and sold them locally...went to help the buyer set them up...He had Coincidence, (sp?), Tube amps, do not know the model, but low watts...hooked up to an Oppo player, using that as a pre...they were shrill...I was embarrassed in front of the new owner...did not know if it was his front end OR did the 1.6's need to RE-burn-in after being refurbished??? The following day I brought over my Bel Canto EVO amp and my Adcom GFP-750 pre and Zu Speaker/interconnects...this synergy I knew well...hooked it all up...still shrill...let him live with it a few days...said it was improving daily...he returned my gear...never heard from him again...

3. Too much speaker in a small room...my friend has 1.6's in a small space roughly 11' X 11' with it open to alcoves front left and back right...his ears are 7'-8' from the speakers...the 1.6's sound glorious in this small space...he replaced MG 12's with tweaked-out 1.6's and it worked...
I now drag my 3.7's to his house and set them up in his SMALL room...they had that 2001 obelisk room dominance...damn...they looked huge...they completely over-whelmed the room sonically...that big wave NEVER materialized into any sign of a coherent image...put a Marshall Amp stack on either side of an open shower...turn it up to 11...yep...that's it...
That first reflection point of right channel speakers ribbon tweeter...man, that was sharp and in your face...you could almost see the line on the wall, like a Ping-Pong net running from floor to ceiling...no mirror required...
I was going to let him live with them for a couple of days, but after 3 hours of "trying" to get them to work...I took them home that night...We have very similar frontends...so it was the 3.7's being too much for his room...that big wave just never materialized into a sonic image...if was cool at first, then 5 minutes later...just unlistenable...too much everything...

4. Cables as taming/tuning devices and resistors in the tweeter attenuators...I am not a fan of either one of these options...but that is just IMHO...in my small brain...I want my speaker pushing all the frequencies it can and my cables as "neutral" as possible...as we all know, cable voodoo is a necessary evil we all deal with...IMHO, a major factor of what the final product is we hear...I really have a love/hate relationship cables...if is something I try not to dwell on...I am currently running an all Zu Event Speaker/Interconnect/Digital...Litz design w/sliver coated copper and white Teflon dielectric...these are all the Mark I, series...these cables make me "feel" that I am not missing anything sonically...that is all I can really ask...I have delusions' of granger when wondering "What Do $10K+ cables sound like???"...then the Meds kick in...and I am fine...

As an HK/Limage Set-up Fan-boy...(IF your room is shoe-box far-field...), this should be on your list of things to try...it is only moving speakers...this IS the cheapest upgrade you can ever try...it breaks ALL my preconceived notions of Maggie placement...remember those cartoons when the character would turn into a Jack-Ass and then back again...that is what I did, after I "tried" it...changed it and went back to it...it couples with the room to great affect...

Sidebar: I may be moving to Waco TX's, long story, but I am starting to look at Condo's and Townhouse's that the HK/Limage Set-up will work...for real man...looking for shoe-box floor plans with dining and kitchen behind listening position...how is that for drinking the Kool-Aid...

Since my experience is limited to Maggies, as far as living with them...would like to hear from the Stat guys for taming the shrill...

Is it the speaks, the front-end or room??? IMHO...all of the above...AND unique to all of us...with some common threads...

What a fun hobby...
thanks
Mark

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