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Upper Midrange Glare problem

I am seeking advice to eliminate hard upper midrange glare. I spent alot of money and the sound improved, but the glare is still present. Is there something wrong with my set up, or etc? My systems is as follows:

Counterpoint DA 11.5 transport with Shunyata King Cobra.
Sonic Frontiers SFD 2 MK II DAC with Shunyata Black Mamba.
Sonic Frontiers SFL 1 Signature Pre Amp with Shunyata Viper.
All above components connected to the PS Audio P300 with a Shunyata King Cobra attached to it.

Bryston 7B ST Mono block with PS Audio Lab Cables connected to two Ultimate outlets which is connected to XLO Type 10 powercords to the wall outlet.

Speakers PSB Stratus Gold, placed 3 ft away from rear wall 2 1/2 ft from side wall, room is 15'wide 21'deep
8 1/2tall. Listening distance is 9 ft away from speakers.

Cables:
Digital - Illuminati D60 - BNC and Illuminati DX-50 - XLR
Interconnects - AudioQuest Diamond X2 - RCA
Speaker Cables - AudioQuest Dragon to highs and Clear 3 to bass.
All Cables are raised by ceramic tiles.

Brights star foundation platforms, tip toes, for each component sitting on a Stand design rack, set of room tunes corners, side walls and tune stripes.

New additions will be XLO limited edition XLR digital cable and Siemens CCa tubes for SFD 2 MK II. Will be here shortly.

Very fraustrated. Any suggestions will be openly noted, thanks.

bowlerds
hiwaves
43 posts
 
The answer is in your speaker cables. To remedy this problem you can assemble a minimum eight (8) foot length of 4awg (gauge) pure copper wire and replace ALL of your speaker cables. This will eliminate the shrill glare that you hear in your system. Continuing to use the cables you have now could in fact damage the drivers because they are denied sufficient power and are working at their limit. The difference in cable capacitance has a direct effect on the sound the drivers are able to reproduce.
sean
6,229 posts
 
Bowlerds, drop me an email if you'd like. I'm pretty sure that I have some interconnects that will take care of your problem or at least reduce it to an acceptable level. While i'm sure that they are not up to the rest of the level of your system, you can try them and see if it points you in the right direction. From there, you'll have a better idea of where to go or what to try next. A few others here have used them under similar circumstances and been quite pleased with the results. Sean
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aragain
39 posts
 
I will stick my neck out and postulate that cables are not going to help.

I do not seek a tussle with those who suggest cable changes. It is simply that in my experience cable changes are in the fine-tuning category and your problem is in the major anomality category.

You are going to need either measurement equipment, set up your equipment in a known good room or bring known good equipment into your room. I know this is a lot of work but it seems to me you are pretty much out of options.
leafs
414 posts
 
I agree the cables are not what your problem is.You have 3 items you are using which are on the bright side.Adding the 3 of them toghther in theory should give you a nice system.It doesent allways work that way.Try a tube amp first.
dekay's avatar
dekay
2,959 posts
 
The glare could be caused by any of the above or a combination of them. Something cheap ($3-$4) to try would be to pick up a small piece of wool felt at a fabric shop along with some double sided tape. Cut rings out of the felt to go around the tweeters (approx. 3" wide, so that they can later be narrowed for less of an effect) and mount them with the tape. Sounds stupid, but it can sometimes be very effective (smoothing) in the mid to upper registers.
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