Magnepan 1.7 too bright, HELP


I just bought a used 6 month old Magnepan 1.7 and hooked them to my old system, which consists on a Deonon 2900 Universal player, Emotiva USP Preamp and Rotel 1080 power amp and use anticables for speaker connections, and monster cables for interconnects.

The sound is too bright for me, I used the provide 1 ohm resisters, still too bright, any recommendations.
bnrimal

Showing 3 responses by gte357s

I understand every system is different. In my case, I don't have luck in SS preamp. I always feel the sound is too bright and sometimes harsh. I tried upgrade cables, no significant improvement. I tried to change to another SS amp, no luck. I tried to add a DAC with tube buffer, no luck. Until I change to a tube preamp, I start to see the improvement. So, I would suggest to get a nice tube preamp. I am not sure what is your price range, tried to search for the thread for best tube preamp under $1000. I remember some of the suggestions are Mapletree 4 SE, AES DJH, PrimaLuna Prologue 3. I am using a PrimaLuna Prologue 3 now, very good preamp. But you need to pay attention to its very high output impedance and 12dB gain. You need an amp with at least 100k ohm input impedance.
A good tube pre under $500 maybe a bit hard to find. Two budget unit with good review comes to mind are the AES DJH and Mapletree 4 SE. But both of them is in the $700-$800 price range. You can keep an eye on those if you can stretch your budget a bit.
There is a mapletree 2 se selling in audiocircle. U may be interested.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=93617.0