System Components are Warm but Synergy is Bright?


Hi everyone,

PLEASE HELP!!! I'm in real need of some advice. I'm going nuts trying to figure this one out!!!

My system components are a Cary 303 second generation player, Plinius 8200 Mk 1 integrated and Soliloquy 6.2 Speakers. The speaker cables are Acoustic Zen Satori and the interconnect is a Straighwire Chorus (ie. weakest link.) Power cords are Shunyata Diamondbacks and power conditioner is a Monster HTS 5100. Each component is characterized as being on the warm side. In fact the Cary replaced a Rega Planet 2000 in the above system and everything was indeed warm. I liked this!

In an effort to retrieve a bit more detail and maintain warmth I went with the Cary CD player. But now the sound is bright and fatiguing. What do you experts think? I bought the Cary used, should I have Cary take a look at it? The previous owner used the unit in a tube system and it sounded wonderful, is there anything that needs to be switched internally in the player now that it is working with Solid State componenets? Can the use of a warm interconnect like the Cardas Cross really make a night and day difference in this instance?

This situation has really got me confused. I thank you and appreciate all of your responses and input in advance.

Thanks!
mdp0430

Showing 2 responses by mdp0430

Thanks again for everyone's input. I certainly welcome others to provide any of their input as well.

Honest1, I think that your dealer is the first person to classify the Plinius sound as "sparkly." From what I gather the Plinius is about as "dark" as Solid State can get, espcicially my 8200 Mk1 Integrated.

Nrchy, my floors are hardwood. There are a couple of shelves and frames on the walls. No treatments if that's what you were looking for. Though there are a significant amount of pillows, sofa, etc. in the room. It's not practical for me to make any adjustments to the room.

Onhwy61, I played around with the speaker's positioning yesterday. No change.

The_Kid, Jafox, I had no idea how bright that StraightWire IC was. Playing around I swapped it out for a Monster IC300 that I was using on our DVD player. The brightness of the Cary diminished a little bit but so did all of the Higher Frequency detail. I guess I have to wait around for some of the higher end interconnects to come up on Audiogon. Thought I really can't believe that they will make that much of a difference. I don't want to spend more than $400 used. Any suggestions other than the Cardas Cross, Golden Cross, and Acoustic Zen Matrix for a warm cable?

Newbee, I have been thinking about going the tube route. Can you point me in the direction of where I can educate myself on the topic? Perhaps there is a primer thread here on A-gon? What would be the effect of mixing a Tube preamp with a Solid State amp? Or using my Plinius 8200 Integrated as the preamp with a Tube amp? Apparently, my Soliloquy 6.2 speakers are in fact tube friendly. I really want to like the Cary.
Audio Buff, sorry, I live in the East Coast... What's your prognosis without dropping by?

Lkdog, I'm not crazy about using cables as tone controls either.