re room treatments: unless you are in a glass bubble, your system should have the tone and characteristics (such as warmth) you expect without room treatment.
Help. System sounds thin and bright or harsh
Hope this isn't redundant tried to post in Tech Talk
Just moved my system to a new home/sound room and it still sounds harsh and a bit thin despite supposedly "warm" sounding Harbeth 30.1 speakers. This issue is not new and I had put the blame on the old listening room. Can't figure out what the problem is. I listen loud at 80dcbl or higher and sit nearfield about 8 feet from the speaker plane. (sound is thin and bright from afar as well) I have experimented in both homes with speaker placement, toe-in and the like. Speakers are placed a lil over 3 feet from the rear wall and about two and a half feet from side walls. I feel something is off. Perhaps a component or two that is known to be tipped up in the highs and a lil bass shy?? Also, I leave all solid state components fully powered up 24/7. (not the tubes)
System:
Modwright/Oppo BDP 105 disc player (all mods with tubed power supply and pricey NOS tube upgrades throughout) Looking to replace once the harshness/bright issue is nailed down.
Parasound JC2 Preamp
Pass Labs X250.5 Amp
Harbeth 30.1 stand mount speakers
Puritan Labs PSM 156 power conditioner. (less "edgy" sound with it in system)
System is run all balanced with fairly costly Cardas interconnects.
All input is welcome. Thanks in advance.
Happy listening.
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@cymivka i don’t think adding subs are the answer to this problem. Sound like you may have a connection problem or an amp problem. But “ harsh” and “bright” aren’t fixed by subs. You’ll get harsh and bright with a lot of bass. My opinion. |
Interesting. Definitely thinking speaker change.( bigger warmer) For sure front end change new dac and new preamp, perhaps a Benchmark HPA 4. Not much to look at (who cares) but great reviews. Tired of the system dictating the type of music I play. Contacted Modwright and found out that the Oppo BDP 105 had 8 firmware updates. I never did any of them. Am going to try to get that done via ethernet but am not expecting a big change in sound. |
I also have a Modwright tube modded OPPO 105D and I have tried numerous tube combinations seeking to tame the harshness I was experiencing. After trying numerous tubes including the tubes recommended by Modwright I settled on Sylvania 6sn gtb 1950's era tubes. Much of my tube search was to attempt to tame the harshness and shrill quality of much of the upper range frequencies being produced. Yours complaint sounds like much of the same issues I was trying to resolve. I recently bought Modwirght's new "Analog Bridge" and I find that the Sylvania tubes also work well in this installation. Brent Jessee (sp.) has the tubes I am speaking about in stock and he was quite decent to deal with. |
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