Help. Wife says Teres 340 Is too bright.


My Teres 340 is equipped with a Origin Live Illustrious 3 arm and Benz Ebony L cart. The rest of my system is listed.
I think the TT combo sounds great. She does too, but says the highs are just a little bright. I have played with VTA but that has not fixed the problem though she says we were headed in the right direction with tail lowered.

She says that we had the Scoutmaster just right prior to buying the Teres. Funny thing is that I thought the SM was a tad bright on certain albums. But she didn't. Now I think the 340 is just right but she thinks it bright on some recordings.

The only component that I can think that would be causing this is the tonearm. I cannot imagine the Benz Ebony L as bright. Nor do I think it is the Teres. I really think we (wife & I) need to have our ears calibrated so as to agree on brightness. But since that isn't going to happen, I suppose I should figure out how to please us both. So, do you think I'm on the right track with the tonearm being the culprit? What tonearm would give a warmer presentation? Thanks for your help
128x128artemus_5
Jj2468,
I have. And Bolero specs are very similar to Sonata- 92(or 93) Db and 8 Ohm.
Jas Bravo 2.3 6C33.
Thanks to all for your input. Regarding loading, it is set at 42ohms. However this is done via cheap resistors installed in RCA plugs and inserted into a Y connector at the input of the tranny. FWIW, I have never been completely comfortable with this arrangement though it was suggested to me by someone who is pretty knowledgeable. I don't like the fact that it has so much wire run in the analog chain, which in itself may be causing the problem
Concerning the amp/speaker combo, I was not aware that one could have too much power. I have been wanting to get into tubed equipment but was shooting more towards the preamp than the amp, with thoughts that SS amp did better in handling the bass than tube. I'd love to borrow a good tube amp to try but unfortunately I live in flyover country and do not have any audiophile friends nearby. I would also note that my speakers are rated at 91.5 db, which, IMO is borderline capable of low power SET. And given my room size, I've been somewhat skeptical of going in that direction. I did consider it before I bought the CJ 2500A,
Again, I'd like to thank you all for giving me much info to consider. I will be gone for the next several days due to a death in the family. And when I get back I will address the problem and keep you posted as to the results
Hug a loved one today. We are not promised a tomorrow
Loading via the Y connector "works" fine, but as you suggest it is not optimal because of the excessive lengths of wire involved. It is even remotely possible that you are picking up RF on your phono stage as a result. That could certainly cause a sensation of brightness. Also, 42 ohms seems a rather low-ish load resistance for your cartridge, but that would not seem to be a culprit in causing brightness. Does the Wright phono preamp use a built-in SUT for LOMCs?

IF your speaker is truly as sensitive as others say (except for Maril), then when you couple it with a powerful SS amp, you are hearing only the first few Watts that such an amp produces. Many such amps don't sound very good in that area of their power curve; they tend to have rising distortion at low power outputs. From what I read above, this is a possible source of your problem, but it seems controversial whether your spkrs are truly as efficient as some say. Anyway, you had the same amp/speaker combo with the previous rig, so I would tend to think the issues are at the phono preamp level or before that in the chain. But before you spend big bucks on an entirely new preamp, you might consider cheap stuff, like soldering that load resistor closer to the signal input and things of that sort that have been brought up by others. Tube swapping might even ameliorate the problem. Replacing coupling caps also might help, if you are handy with a soldering iron.
I can't help but wonder if the problem is down stream at the speaker/room interface. You stated "One more thing in the equation is that I play this quite a bit louder than the Scoutmaster because I can. I think this is part of the problem"
I agree with this assessment. Have you tried going back to the volume you used to play vinyl at and see if it is still bothersome? Next I'd move the volume level back to the problem level and try a different source eg digital and see if the sound is still offensive. If it is then maybe just a speaker position adjustment will solve the issue or possibly room tuning will be required.

Worth a shot before buying & sellig more gear
Kevinn
Doug and Tom raised interesting points about how the change could be bringing to the fore other system limitations. I agree that that is a distinct possibility.

I think it is worth looking at other possibilities as well. It appears that the "brightness" is a somewhat narrow band issue and each of the listeners is more sensitive to resonance in a different frequency band (husband thinks the VPI is brighter, wife thinks the Teres is brighter). It may be the case that each product has a distinctly different primary resonant frequency. All mechanical systems resonate to some degree at certain frequencies. Perhaps, some experimentation with the support the table is on, or with other resonant tuning devices might favorably alter the sound. I don't know what can be done about resonance in the arm itself (I don't know about the Origin arm), but perhaps others could comment.