Orchestral brass and fanfare - analysis of system


The question is - where do the elements of great brass reproduction reside in a system? In the story below, I think performance is limited by either my amp or tweeter. What do you think?

And now my story ...
My system at present:

Electrocompaniet EMC1 CDP with MKII upgrade
Pass Labs X-1 Pre
Krell KAV250a amp
B&W Nautilus 805s
Audioquest interconnect
Discovery speaker cable.

What I hear from individual solo brass instruments:
Lyrical sound with good harmonics and good "Pratt".
Equally good with coronets, flugels, trombones, baritones;
french horns may be a little compressed - but then that is their natural sound. Works equally well on loud and soft passages.

What I hear from symphonic brass in fanfare is different:
[e.g. Copland - new world symphony ]The "Pratt" is still there, mids and lows are good, however the highs become compressed at LOUD volumes. On low volume passages the system relaxes into my comfort zone again.

My own thoughts:

1. Is this the sound of clipping?
2. Is this the metal tweeter on the 805s?
3. Is this amp unable to open up the speakers enough?
(Krell generally has plenty of headroom - even the KAVs)
4. Have I hit the wall with what my speakers can do?
judit

Showing 1 response by stehno

As those above indicate, it could be a number of things. There's a lot of symphonic music that is quite dynamic even awesome.

If you are listening to decent recording labels such as Telarc, Reference Recordings, etc., then I would absatively posilutely disagree with those above who say it's probably the recordings.

By all means start by looking at your most inexpensive components first.

But in my experience and readings, I believe the culprit most likely is in the amplifier and it's designer. There are those who believe that all amps simply amplify the signal with a certain current and power rating being the only difference.

In my experience and reading, this is the furthest from the truth and can be the most corruptedly designed component in a given system. Some to many amps introduce potentially serious flaws at reproducing higher and/or lower frequencies, where higher volumes and/or complex music can lead to compression and/or congestion. Not to mention amps that roll off the highs or soften them or roll off the bottom end, etc.. Most of these ill-affects are coming from a design flaw or weakness within the amp.

I'm not a Krell fan anyway, so if it were me, I'd look first at the amp. But that would also be perhaps the most expensive remedy.

-IMO