Missing sound of instruments/voice/ on CD tracks


I'm missing sound of some instruments or voice when playing CD's. Even duplicate CD's, when played, I'm missing some digital information or not having it picked up some where. For instance, the lead guitar part in a song may be totally missing or on other artists' recordings barely audible. It can be voice, horn, reed, string, etc., but it's always the same instrument even when played on another copy of the same CD. The following equipment is used: Gamut CD3 (2years old), NAT Symmentrical (Tube) pre-amp (3 years old), NAT Generator Mono block Amps (Tubes) new, Gamut Phi7 speakers (maybe 2 years old), various power cords of middle high end, and Acoustic Zen IC's Silver Reference II and Absolute (about 2 months old). Speaker cable is 5 years old, forgot the brand, and are double barreled. The speakers are bi amped. I don't know where to start in my trouble shooting before I call a audio shop for repair help. Maybe the laser in the CD is dirty? HELP. Thanks
sargentfriday
What are you comparing your CD to that makes you say you're missing parts of the music?

Try playing one of the CDs on another system and see if the instrument(s) suddenly reappear.
Are you saying maybe that some instruments and voice is not discernible, muddled, or not as clear as it should be, or truly not there at all?

Big difference.

There are tweaks that might address the first but the second would seem to be a more significant problem somewhere that I would find hard to explain as described.
Problem solved. What a DA I am. Thanks for the input guys. It was a interconnect error.
Thats a very odd problem. I would first start with Onhwy61's recommendation. Assuming the problem persists, I can only guess, but a couple of things come to mind. If you made copies of these CD's, you may have some settings wrong. I know you can make CD's for karaoke. From what I understand, to remove the vocal tracks, by alternating phase between the 2 channels. If this is the case, even if there is no vocals, it can probably mess up anything in the same frequency range. From some of the instruments you list, I think its a possibility that this may be the case.

Also, while talking about phase, check your speaker cables very carefully. If you wire the speakers out of phase with each other, it will cause all kinds of problems. You won't hurt anything, but, for example, the vocals may seem like they are comming from one of the side walls instead of between the speakers.

The only other thing I can think of is a possible gain issue. Sometimes too much gain or not enough gain can cause all sorts of problems. Kind of like if you buy a high output MC phono cart and a standard MC phono stage when you should have got a MM phono preamp. Too much gain and things sound very bad and sometimes disappear. Given you have a lot of tube equipment, you can very well have a bad tube. It wouldn't hurt to check your bias either.

Beyond that, I can't think of anything else other than to make sure you read all the other posts because and I am likely wrong on this one.
Sargentfriday,

If its not too much trouble, can you explain what kind of interconnect error it was? I don't know why, but I did post with some possible fixes but it looks that Audiogon never posted them for some reason. Looks like I was wrong but the problem was very odd and I'm just very curious as to what the problem was.