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Help me tame the brightness of my Triangles

I bought a pair of Triangle Zerius speakers a month ago, and in some ways they're the most amazing speakers I've listened to. Incredibly open, detailed, fast, and dynamic (as advertised).

But I also find them to be too bright and too hard for my ears, at least with a good amount of my music. I've taken care of the obvious things, like break-in (approaching 300 hours now) and matching with a warm system (Rega planet 2000 cd player, Unison Research Unico integrated amp with Mullard cv4003 tubes). I put little thought into cables .. i'm currently using straight wire rhapsody 2 interconnects and 20 feet of audioquest gr8 speaker cables.

The hardness comes in the upper midrange/lower trebble, typically at high or moderately high volumes, and typically on vocals and guitars. Especially if the recording is at all aggressive. The brightness is just an overall sense of the tonal balance. It seems lighter weight than what I hear in live music. I expect the music to have more weight and roundness (this is why I have the Planet and the Unico to begin with).

I've played with position and toeing in. My room is large (about 16 x26 feet with 10 to 11 foot ceilings). It's slightly bright and splashy, although i believe most of what I'm hearing is the direct sound of the speakers (the tonal balance is the same when I get real close).

I'm wondering about new interconnects .. perhaps cardas. the Quadlinks seem like they'd make the most sense. Any thoughts on this? How big a difference they might make? Would the Cardas Cross cables be unreasonably pricey in this system?

I'm also wondering about tubes. The Unico with the mullards has a wonderful, liquidy midrange, and great transients and dynamics. Are there any tubes that might darken the sound and soften the lower trebble without killing detail, dynamics, transients, and soundstaging?

I suspect most people would find my system sounds more balanced than I do ... my ears seem to be pretty sensitive to brightness and hardness. But it still seems strange that these speakers that everyone seems to like can sound bright even with these other componens I've chosen.

Thank you for any thoughts you might have.
paulraphael
benthar
42 posts
 
Your speaker cable might be a factor in the brightness.

My limited experience with Audioquest speaker cable is that they are great, but do have a slight hardness in the range you described, which can be fatiguing over a long listening session, depending on your taste and system.

JPS ultraconductor or IXOS (some of the lower-cost IXOS) might be worth checking out. Music Metre (?) is also rumored to be a little smoother in the treble than Audioquest.

If it turns out the speaker cable is not the issue, another
possibility is component isolation. Sometimes hardness in the sound is cleared up by changing the isolation method for source/amp/etc. IMO Audioquest sorbothane pucks are a good starting point simply because they are fairly neutral sounding.
fatparrot
1,314 posts
 
I agree with Dekay. I got a pair of Mullard 4003's from a VERY BIG name expert tube "Guru". Turned out to be CRAP! (lots of noise!) Your 4003's are most likely '80's garbage that should not be confused with the earlier and premium vintage Mullards. I have done some tube rolling, and have found that the real Telefunkens are absolutely wonderful! (I do have a pair of Amperex on the way...so I will compare them to the Telly's shortly...should be fun!) Andy at Vintage Tube Services had some Telly 12AU7's a few months ago, but you will pay $200- for a premium matched pair, if still availible. Well worth every penny for the sound quality, and his expertise! Also, I have a used pair of RCA's for short money, also from Andy. These blew away the Mustard...er, Mullard 4003's. Contact me, if you are interested (Paulraphael ONLY, please!) I like holding on to my variants of NOS 12AU7's, but this may be a nice (and cheap) fix for your problem. And like chicken soup...it couldn't hurt!
sol322
426 posts
 
Paulraphael
It could be interesting to know what your previous speakers and set up were before the Triangles. Was the new speakers the only change you made?
Do you have carpet / sideall acoustic treatment?

Very interesting comments on the tube performance variation

Luis
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
A friend of mine has the same Triangles. They are in a smaller room than yours, but still of good size. Cables are APO. His CDP is an ?Electrocompanient?. His amp is an old model Levinson, as is the pre. Like you, Paul, I am sensitive to glare and brightness. I detected none with my friend's Triangles. I thought they were some of the best dynamic driver speakers I have heard. He does say you need to give them lots of time to break in.

Now here is my sermon: Your room, is it a walled in room, or open to other areas of the house? Is there glass along one side, and wall on the other? The reason I am asking, is my friend with the Triangles has gone gaga over my Apogee Duetta Signatures. They are doing Christmas duty as I write. My room is seventeen/twenty one/ten and it's windows are symmetrical. That is the kind of room you need for these incomparable speakers. They can be had for a pittance on Audiogon and Ebay. There are Ferrari drivers, people that have the money to buy anything, that own and love these treasures.
paulraphael OP
13 posts
 
Thanks for all the advice, everyone.
Curious about the impressions of the 80's mullards. My only frame of reference is the USA Jan/Philips tubes that the amp came with. These were grainier and more forward in the midrange, but had similar tonal balance. I don't find one to be brighter than the other.

Has anyone used Cardas cables? Lots of people have recommended them. People are pushing me toward the Cross, which I may be able to pick up used for $200 ... seems like a lot for this system. I can get used quadlinks for more like $130, but I've been warned that they can sound slow and sloppy in the bass. Any experience with these cables?

Have people really heard significant changes with power cords on CD player? And by significant, I men ones that you notice just sitting back and listening to the music, not just squinting during an A/B test. I've never experimented, so I don't know.

Thanks again,
Paul
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