grainy sounding high end system

With all those purchases, have you made any good friends in your local stores? Is there anyone whose opinion you trust? Maybe someone else with a good ear will come over to give you some opinions and suggestions. I recently had a guy from one of the local shops come to my house. He helped fine tune my speaker placement, made suggestions on what would be the next logical upgrades and tweaks, and even opened up my preamp and helped me compile a list of capacitors to upgrade. I have spent enough time and money in his shop, and enough time cultivating our friendship, that he did this for free and did not try to sell me anything from his store.

I realize that this type of service is rare, and that finding a trustworthy and truly knowledgeable salesperson is even harder, but it's worth the effort to search out these people. It's taken me a couple of years of talking with Mike to learn that he really knows his stuff, and that he's not always in "sales mode".

There are three decent high-end stores in my town, and I try to visit them often and spend enough time with the various employees to determine who is a good resource. I also try to spread my purchases around to avoid getting a reputation as a window shopper. It's been well worth the effort.

JD

Are you using any type of AC filter? You may also benefit from upgraded power cords. Both of these items are very good at removing the problems you describe. Check the threads for suggestions, and you can generally buy these things at half list or better right here. Good luck.

I will second the opinion on your front end. Might want to look at that. Also, you might want to look at the preamp. The choice of tubes does make a difference.
Sometimes you can "Tune" some of what you are hearing out with a different cable (interconnect) Cardas comes to mind here.
I really think you have a cummulutive effect. I agree with the above post that ML amps can get a little tizzy if all is not well upline. Could try a little speaker moving and see if that helps. Just don't aim those bad boys right at you.
Maybe your dealer will let you try a few different things. Put them in your system and see if you hear a difference. Might help you isolate some of it.
Also, check the cable between your front end and the DAC.

Is all of this plugged directly into the wall or are you using a power strip of some kind?

Matty

Make sure all of your connections are good. It never hurts to double check everything. Once I had a pre-amp wired backwards (L & R) internally on one input. Plug your amp straight into the wall. Avoid using a power strip if at all possible. Make sure the speakers are placed out in the room. I am sure you have played with speaker placement already. That won't fix a grainy sound. Power conditioning can help eliminate grain and lower the noise floor on the CD, DAC and Pre-Amp. Good power cords help too. Make sure your equipment is warmed up. Some amps don't open up until they are nice and toasty. I leave everything on 24/7 except my tube pre-amp.

Now, get yourself a new set of tubes from Andy at vintage tube services (www.vintagetubeservices.com). Go with his advice, and buy the best ones possible. Grainy sound points in the direction of bad tubes. I got improved bass, top end, detail and soundstage with my new tubes.

You could try playing with cables next or look into a better transport. Cables could be the problem, but only if you are using real cheap stuff. You are wasting your time playing with cables until you get new tubes. The transport would be the most expensive change, but probably a small improvement considering the DAC you have is highly rated.

One other thought, you might look into a tube ouput stage DAC or CD player.

Good Luck,

Stewart