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Stereo system Too Bright

I have a stereo that consists of a Marantz CD-63SE, an Adcom SLC-505 passive pre, an Adcom GFA-535II power amp, Axiom M40ti floorstanding speakers, Phoenix Gold $20 interconnects, and standard Monster speaker cable.

Lately I have really noticed that it sounds too bright. With some recordings, it seems like there are two tracks, one for the hi-hat and snare, and one for the rest of the music. cymbals always seem to come out over the top of the mix, to the point where it is bordering on unlistenable. At the very least it's extremely annoying.

I'm wondering how I can get rid of this problem. My preamp doesn't have a tone control, so I'm thinking that I'll probably have to go for other interconnects or maybe alter the speaker cabinets somehow (by stuffing them or something). I don't know how you would go about doing this, but it seems like about all I can do - there are only so many components that could be at fault. Does anyone know what my problem is? Hopefully these components aren't just totally mismatched...

I hope you guys can shed some light on this issue.

Thanks,
Chris
metonymy3

Showing 1 response by gregm

gregm
3,391 posts
 
When the passive + amp combo sounds thin, it's usually a matter, either of a) impedance (signal transfer b/ween pre+amp) OR b) upstream component.
In your case it's probably the cdp. I've heard it and it sounded to me more or less as you described it.
OTOH, I would hardly expect that engineers at adcom know nothing about circuit analysis and therefore can't choose a volume pot (the passive) that bridges with their own amps!

Kotta's suggestion for solid core is also good BUT ONLY if you live in a relative quiet environment, free from stray fields (otherwise you just could send the system into oscillation)!
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