My system is bright? I need help. thanks


Hi. it is my first time here in this forum. i would appreciate input and help from all of you. No sacrasm or bad langauge please. I had bad experience with other forums in that aspect. music loving people and audiophiles should be an elite, high caliber and classy community. This is rare to find today. Ok Down to the point.

My system
Musical fidelity kw 500 sacd player. I use the tube output.
Musical fidelity kw 500 integrated amp.
speakers:eggleston andra (not andra 2)
speaker cable: satori acoustic zen
interconnects: Nordost baldur and nordost quatrofil RCA
USe a dedicated 20 amp line with regular power cords(came with the gear) and a panamax 20 amp surge protector and filter.

This is in my family room so there is little room for treatment and moving things around.

problem: bright. the highs are killing my ears, after 1-2 hours of listening my ears start to hurt,sometimes 3 minutes. I have to turn the volume down. I tried postioning, it got a little better. I will try acoustic zen silver ref II may be it will help. The sound is otherwise phenomenal, i could be happy with more bass, but overall it is very good. Depth, tranparency, acuity and soundstaging are great. As for mids, i can see the person infront of me,I can hear the articulation of the tongue in the mouth before the words and tunes comes out. no kidding, but not for long because of fatigue.

I would really appreciate your input.
Scientist73
scientist73
You don't mention power conditioning. I have allways recommended a Richard Gray which really does wonders.

Room Treatment, if your room is way to bright it may be underdamper get some Echo Buster or similar panels behind the speakers.

The Musical Fidelity equipment is way over rated. The CD player is good, the amplifier is partially to blame for your way too bright sound. I used to work at a major Musical Fidelity dealer and after the cheaper equipment I never warmed up to the expensive MF gear. I would go with a good tube preamplifier and use a seperate power amplifier with good base control. The Cary preamplifiers are very musical especially the SLP 05 the less expensive 98 model is very warm, the Nuforce 9Se are extremely warm I know they are controversial ie the Absolute Sound, but they are really exceptional. Also Plinius makes extremely musical solid state.

A good isolation base under the player will help.
Thanks a again to all of you. I tried again today and i am happy with the results it is still bright in the highs and "S" on Patricia barber SACD is like a knife to my ears.
but no pain, i am content with that for now.

From my limited experience with the reviews they do not mean a lot. they all say that it is an great equipment they pick some defects and may be compare. Now they do this on thier systems with ear and my be some numbers.

the problem is ,I am after a certain sound quality that i have in my head. like an imagination or dream i may say. You all know what works for one does not for the other. My brother for example loves warm non bright system. he listened to my sonos faber grand piano home speakers and he loves them so much despite a lot of limitations.

I think the musical fidelity is very musical> it doe snot have the punch of krell for example. I listen to a violin and i can fell the vibreation of teh string and I feel the music. The andra are known for respecting the relaying the emotion in sound. I have no problem with the musicality, since yesteday i have tapping my feet and preventing myself from dancing and waving my body with some tunes. i close my eyes and i fell one with the music. I lost a little bit of the space between the sounds but detail and teh depth and the decay(i am not sure if i am using the right term for the right thing, pardon my ignorance) are outstanding. It is scary, yes you eill feel it is really and physically infront of you and real. so musical . and the rhythm is great i can catch any rhythm so easily inside the music, like a drum, bass, guitar, clapping.

can you all imagine that i found all this with yesterday's toe in. i put masking tape to mark the position. i tried toe alittle bit out , just one inch. it got ugly, i moved back again.
The base, i mean the very low notes are little boomy in one or two cds and the notes last longer than they should i guess this is reflection.

The speakers are about 5.5-6 feet apart. the are about 4 feet from the wall behind them(where the plasma is) and i sit about 7 feet from each speaker exactly in the middle. they are really close to me.

I have an idea now it may silly but you guys let me know. The biggest proble of all time I think is the mismatch of equipment, the synergy. a well match 3k system my be better than a mismatched 10 k system despite it's limitation.
why don't we have a threar or a special forum on a website where audiophiles try to use an objective system to help with this problem i am into research and i know that people can make things beetre if they collaborate using the same langauge. I have lot of details regarding this i just got it now, if you guys think it is a good idea we can talk more about it. Need has always been the mother of invention.we can adjust the variables so people can refer to this refence to help buy or even limit their auditions and waste of money
I am not going to mention each individual name who gave me an input but once again. thanks soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much
Bout anaolgue
I play some records on MMF-5 turntable and tapes an a NAK cr-7a.
I am new to vinyl but it sounds much better than Cd except for the weaker base and some brightness in the highs.

I listen to cds 80% of the time.
IMO, 5.5-6 feet apart and sitting 7 feet away makes the speakers a little too close together. 7 feet apart (measured from the center of the drivers) would be more conforming to a traditional near-field set up. At 5.5-6 feet apart, how far are they from the side walls...measured from the wall to the center of the drivers?
how far are they from the side walls...measured from the wall to the center of the drivers?
Thanks for your concern

Fom the right wall unit to the center of the drivers about 3.5 feet no more than 4. from the left it is about 5 to 6 feet but it is the entrance and a knee wall no high wall and behind them a small cabinet in the corner.