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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
newbee
4,755 posts
 
My read on the published reviews and quite a few of the user reviews on line have lead me to believe that the 303/200 can be bright, at least in some systems. I doubt that you have a unit with a defect, it just isn't synergistic with your components. Cardas might help, but in my experience good IC's only make subtle differences. Now if you had a warm tube pre-amp as the prior owner did you probably wouldn't have a problem.
jafox
1,452 posts
 
Hello,

I try not to put too much credit to cables for dramatic changes, but Straightwire has a reputation for being bright. I had the SW Virtuoso XLR cable years ago and I was amazed at the improvements, i.e., HUGE loss of fatigue, when I switched to any number of cables: CardasGoldenCross, HarmonicTech, MIT and then NBS.

The Cardas will make a big difference in tonality, primarily in a much softer presentation and overly warm and rich midrange, but you will lose extension and resolution on the top. For the same price on the used market, the NBS Signature is tonally much the same, but does not at all have the weaknesses of the CGC. The NBS is the clear winner here by quite a huge margin.

And whatever is your best cable, focus on putting this from preamp to amp rather than source to amp. Over the years, with so many system changes, I have found the line stage to amp link to be the most sensitive to cable differences.

John
the_kid's avatar
the_kid
465 posts
 
Hmmm.. I think what you are hearing is more detail from the Cary CDP. I would say that your demon is probably the Straight Wire Interconnect. That stuff is BRIGHT! The Rega is a very warm player so the Straight Wire was probably okay with it as a source. I would personally suggest using the matching interconnect to your speaker wire. Acoustic Zen.

Then give things are serious listen. The Cary should give you more Air, detail and focus over the Rega. Not grain, brightness, or glare as you are describing. Good luck

Chris
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,155 posts
 
Before changing any components you should experiment with the toe-in and vertical tilt axis of your speakers.
nrchy's avatar
nrchy
2,124 posts
 
I hope this is not throwing too many issues at you at once, but have you considered that the room might be the problem? The room is too often overlooked as the source of problems but it is every bit as important as the gear placed within.

What is on the floors, walls and ceiling?
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