How Important Is The Cdp?

Dave, my room is about the same size as yours, and although my system is different than yours, the high frequency sounds quite harsh, too.

I didn't make any treatment in my room since the walls are surrounded with open closets, table, bed, and other stuff, and the floor is carpet. My speakers are located more than a foot from side and back wall. I tried to locate them further away from the walls too but it didn't help to reduce the harsh high frequency sound.

The following is my system:
CDP: Nad C521i and Toshiba SD-4900
Amp: Dared VP-20, a 18w per channel push-pull tube amp
Speakers: Von Schweikert VR-1 on a 26" metal and heavy stand.
ICs: Signalcable Analog Two
Speaker/PC cable: Transparent cables

Now my next plan is indeed to work on the room treatment, but I am wondering if there is anything wrong in my system as well, can you guys give me some opinion too?

Thanks.

Dave & Clo:

Since I wrote my response about 2 months ago, I have been on a bit of a journey with my systems. In my bedroom, I was pairing a vintage Marantz 2240 receiver with a Music Hall CD 25 cd player and Omega Super 3 speakers. The Omegas are high efficiency, single driver speakers ... the types that are normally paired with tube and SET amps. I was using Signal Cable interconnects and speaker cables.

The set-up sounded pretty good with most types of music, but when I was listening to some 50's era Sinatra, at the point where the brass fanfare would kick in ... the music would start screeching and sound almost cartoonish. I tried a number of things ... first I replaced the Marantz receiver with an Arcam receiver ... it made a neglible difference. So, I sold the Arcam and re-introduced the Marantz. Then I replaced the Signal Cable interconnect with an IXOS 1001 Silver Gamma interconnect ... a $ 200 copper/silver hybrid cable that Accessories4less has for $50. The sound cleared up a bit, became fuller, and increased in detail. Then I replaced the Signal Cable Classic speaker cables with Signal Cable Silver Resolution speaker cables. The honkiness disappeared and the sound really started to click.

So, what made me focus on the cables? It was because most music sounded pretty good, but some music sounded off. So, I had a system that was mostly OK , but needed tweaking, not a make-over. I went with silver hybrid cables, because I have had good luck with them (Better Cables & IXOS) for use with digital sources. The Silver Resolution speaker cables were a pleasant surprise and mated well with the IXOS. Fortunately, the cost was also fairly low ... $50 for the interconnect and $200 for the speaker cable.

I just wanted to relay my experiences, as it sounds like we have similar situations. Hope this helps.

Regards, Rich

Clo:
Do you have any power "treatment" in your system? Where do you have your components, rack?

Sol322,
My amp connects to a Transparent Cable PowerLink Plus Power Cord which directly plugs into the room's power outlet. For my CD players, I just use their stock power cord that go into a basic power conditioner. My amplifier is on a metal/wood coffee table while my CD-players are located on a 2 inch wood plate on the carpet. Does the setup sound ok? Thanks.

Clo:
Do you rate the highs obtained using either CD source (CDP & DVD) with the same CD the same i.e harsh highs?
Specify what's your basic pow. cond.?