Need Help With a Bright System

I played around with speaker cables last week. I have some Transparent Musicwave 100s that were clearly warmer than both my Analysis Plus and a set of Signal Cables. When I placed the Transparents on the bottom end of a biwired speaker it seemed to extend the Bass a little too. If memory serves me correctly, I would also say that Transparents lower priced ICs were somewhat rolled off as well.

You could also try placing felt around the tweeter. Literally cut a donut shaped piece and using a removable adhesive place it around the tweeter.

Similarly you can place foam rubber blocks beside or below the tweeter. Somewhat like Dunlavy's.

Hi Jwglista, room adjustments would be the first thing i tried. Bare floors, walls, glass, giant tvs, any hard surfaces. Try homemade solutions, rugs, wall hangings, pillows,etc. I use a wall hanging[thick cotton], pillows, and stuffed animals in strategic places!, thats right, i'm single! After that, maybe warmer cables[ i like harmonic tech], incerting a tube preamp, and internal damping of the DVD player[marigo dots, sorbothane,etc.] I love Rosstaman's suggestion! [Yah mon, thanks for that , you made my day] Happy tweaking and thanks for listening, Alan

You may want to invest in a Radio Shack SPL meter and an audio test CD (to generate fixed frequency tones) before you make any changes. If the sound is as bright as you claim, it will show up on a graph of SPL vs frequency. Then you can retest every time you make a change (whether room decor, system components or tweaks) and see the real difference the changes make. At the very least this will give you a good feel for the quantifiable impact varies changes make on you overall system acoustics. Good luck.

Well I had a chance to bring the Antals back home and hooked them up to my dad's system (PrimaLuna Prologue 2 + Marantz SA-11S1). I have to say that the transparency and imaging was pretty remarkable, producing a very accurate sound image that had a great amount of depth. The room was set up better, and I could hear more bass than I could in my own room. As for the brightness, it was toned down quite a bit, but I could still notice the brightness even with this tube amp and a much better source. SACDs sounded much less harsh/bright. We made a trade (temporary) and I brought home the Paradigm Studio 60 v3's knowing that they would sound much better with the NAD equipment (I had heard this setup already before). Comparing the Triangles to the Paradigms, I would have to say that I enjoy the sound of the Paradigms more, simply because they are more listenable and seem to be a bit more musical. They are also more of an "all purpose" speaker, being able to handle a broader range of music. Rock music is iffy when it comes to the Triangles; some recordings are ok, others are intolerable. The Triangles seem to do a better job at reproducing room ambiance and detail, but also lack the dynamic range that the Paradigms have. I still can't believe how transparent the Triangles are, but it's the brightness that takes away from me being able to acually enjoy that transparency. I think that if you listen to mostly classical and jazz, the Triangles are an excellent choice; for a listener that still likes to enjoy rock, it's like The_Kid said: better buy stock in Advil.

Although I don't want to go through the trouble of selling the Triangles and getting new speakers, I think that in the end I'll end up doing just that. I'm dreading the day when I have to hook the Triangles back up to the NAD stuff....

What about mods? Someone suggested adding felt around the tweeters? Are there any other fixes for a bright speaker?

There are many 'band-aid' tweaks that you can implement, but in the long run, it'll probably cost the same as buying new speakers. Just bite the bullet and get speakers that you'll love instead of annoy.