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How to make sound less detailed with warmth?

Hello All,

I am quite new to audio stuff... just been listening to my current set up for about a year.

CD Player: RCD-1072
Preamp: Sonic Frontier SFL-1
Poweramp: BK M-200 Sonata Series
Speaker: Thiel 1.3
Cable: Not sure...

I liked detailed sound at first but now I am more into musical and warm sound. It becomes a pain when I listen to violin on my current system. So my question is which part should I change to make my system sound more musical?

One more question: My BK M-200 Power amp just died on me. Is it a wise decision to send the unit back to B&K or get it fixed here?!?! Please let me know.

Thank you!
patch1980
pawlowski6132
592 posts
 
If listening to violins on your system is painful, you have a fatiguing system with "harsh" highs. It's a fault of your system to represent those frequencies. It's not that you have too much detail.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,410 posts
 
Tube amp, Cardas cables, room treatments.

I'm surprised that you want to loose details - thin blanket over speakers will do. It will kill both details AND brightness.

90% of people want warm and detailed sound which is very difficult to achieve. I prefare neutral detailed sound. Warm sound (stronger even harmonics) is not very good for instruments with complex overtones like piano. Piano can sound "out of tune" on very warm system. On the other hand guitar and voice sound great.
pehare's avatar
pehare
831 posts
 
I agree w/Newbee. Dumb the Thiels asap. I had the same experience w/2.4's after having owned 2.3's. Tried Cardas Golden Cross, varied power Pass/Classe SS amplification, sources, etc. get some reasonably efficient speakers & enjoy the bliss of modest tube amplification
bwyoung
143 posts
 
Replace the amp since its dead anyway. Change the cables next (the cardas suggestion is a good one), then if that has not sufficiently fixed your problem change out the Thiels. I owned the Thiel 1.5s and they can sound heavenly if properly matched but they do lean toward the forward and bright side. Next, change out your CD player. Then change out the power cords. Then start over and do it all again. Then if you're like me, you still won't be happy, so run a couple of dedicated circuits. Then repeat this process a third and forth time until you have spent your kid's inheritance.
wireless200
415 posts
 
Move a different speaker. Thiel's are known to have a highly "analytical" sound. With Theils, that is an end unto itself. This echos my own experience with them. It's universal across the product line or at least every model I've heard.

People like 'em but where I saw them become well-known is with their "time-aligned" drivers. Which in theory sounds good and is possibly the main contributer to the Theil house sound, but I believe without that they would not have become well-known because they don't sound good at least to the majority of people I've talked with about them.
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