Michael, I'm having all kinds of problems responding to your message (verification nonsense) but wanted to thank you for your suggestions. I will follow up with Andy, armed with your experience. Best,
Robert
Focal Kanta 2 and CODA 16 amp
Hello All,
My audio system was sounding really good but I felt the need to go further and recently upgraded a McIntosh MC152 amp to a Coda 16. What was missing? A certain bit of clarity, the ability to place instruments in the soundstage, and an amp that is consistent in quality with the rest of my equipment.
McIntosh is one of the amplifiers that pairs well with my Focal Kanta 2s. I thought about a more powerful McIntosh but didn’t go there, heard a Luxman M900u in a dealer’s showroom that was OK, but a demo of the Coda turned my head. The Coda is an eye-opener in the clarity and power it brings to the system, but it has thrown the balance off. I am now struggling to overcome some brightness with certain music (not all), a slight edge that I had previously managed to defeat by changing cables, rolling tubes in my preamp and adding the Mac.
My listening space is not ideal and can use acoustic treatment to tame the highs, but things sounded pretty good before. The focus and bulk of time (say 85%) is with home theatre, but when I play two channel, I want it to be high quality. An obvious path is to correct my mistake, sell the Coda and look elsewhere. Another alternative is to keep this excellent amp and get a different (warmer?) preamp to better match the Coda (must have HT bypass and XLR connections), or perhaps something like a MiniDSP with Dirac to tweak the sound. I'm even contemplating warmer speakers to replace the Kantas, but that means three speakers (L/C/R) for home theatre.
I appreciate any words of wisdom or solace from Kanta and/or Coda owners on a strategy to manage this issue. Thanks,
Robert
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- 38 posts total
I think that may be a source of some of your brightness. Can’t see your sidewalls from your picture, but address all sources of first reflections if you have really hot tweeters- sidewalls, ceiling, backwall and floors. I see a thin carpet on the floor but not sure if that is in "the way" of your tweeters. Just try and throw down a few thick towels on the floor halfway to your seating position and see if that helps? Ceiling would be harder What tubes are in your pre? I found my Rhumba Extreme was a little too bright with Telefunken’s, and for me that is saying something! Gold Lions that it came with were nice and forgiving, but Tesla’s sound perfect- they have the same bottom end as the Gold Lions, but with better clarity and almost as much cymbal air and energy as the Telefunkens. I have not paired the Backert with my Coda 15.5+ yet but I really love this Backert pre- it definitely is not bright, it is glorious!
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@mclinnguy , thanks for your input. The floor is covered with carpet/ padding from the front of the speakers to underneath the couch that is my listening position. The speakers themselves actually sit on the hardwood floor. I draped a heavy throw reserved for chilly nights over the TV that sits between the speakers and it makes a marginal positive difference. I've done the mirror trick to find the first reflection points on the side walls and hung blankets in those areas. Again, it resulted in a subtle rather than very obvious, positive difference. I have no doubt the combination of more well-placed treatments would have a cumulative effect, not least of which would be me taking up residence in the garage. My wife has limited patience with what my hobby/ obsession has done to the parlor (her daytime office), as 11 speakers, two subs and SR HFTs all over the walls are kinda obvious in the room. One of the acoustic treatment companies had a sale and I talked about placing some acoustic panels here and there. That conversation didn't go well. Thus, my options for optimizing the space are limited. My vacuum tube journey has taken me through new and NOS Mullard, Brimar, Amperex, Conn, RCA clear top, black plate, triple mica and Amperex 7316. With my previous McIntosh amp, the 7316's were the champs. I avoided the likes of Telefunken as I understood they were on the brighter side. With the new amps, the triple micas are currently in use, while the pricey 7316's sit on the sidelines. C'est la vie. I've had a few conversations with Andy at Backert about options, and as was pointed out above, Andy agreed the experiment of decreasing the DAC's volume would be telling to diminish the effect of the Rhythm's gain. It has, in fact, been extremely helpful, to the point where I can listen to just about anything now (emphasis on just about). Another Backert owner who had a similar problem to mine had the factory reduce the preamp's gain and it made all the difference. The cost to do that is very reasonable and I will likely go that route. I'm getting even further afield here, but some months ago I decided to go all the way and replace my "good" ethernet cable with a high end one in the chain from my switch and filter to streamer. I removed the filter yesterday and what do you know: the system sounded even better. Horns and female vocals were tamed just a bit more. Whether the benefits inherent in this cable (it has its own magical filter thingy on it) might have been conflicting with the other ethernet filter, or my ears and brain are starting to hear the improvement I want them to hear, it was another step in the right direction. I've also been moving IC cables around in the system to gauge the impact. There are no shortage of variables to play with, and there are times I consider whether different speakers could be just but the doctor ordered, but the good news is I am getting closer to better sound. And, through it all, the home theatre sounds good, which is extremely important, as it is the bulk of my time. Cheers, Robert |
There is definitely no shortage of effort on your part to achieve the sound you are looking for. Thanks for the thread, always good to read what other audiophiles have been doing in their journey to audio nirvana.
As many have said, once one has the level of quality hifi components that you have acquired in your digital chain, everything matters. I have recently been reading on another forum about what many claim is such a huge difference with just the DC cable on the linear power supply on the modem. Crazy to believe. I don't even have a linear power supply on my modem (yet).
Yup, choice is good. Here is another variable: Software I don't believe it was discussed previously, but at times, on certain tracks, I have found Squeeze was a little too hot, and going to Roon smoothed out some high frequency energy, similar to going from Telefunken to some "lesser" tube with less transparency and less high frequency extension. I would think Conductor is similar to Squeeze. Enjoy the process! |
edit: I see you already tried some of this with the sidewalls with minimal improvements, did you get both points? but let us know about the floor. 
- 38 posts total