raspy high end


I am driving a new pair of kef xq40 with a vintage yamaha m2 amp (240 wpc) and a matched yamaha c-4 preamp. Using a jvc dvd player and playing hd recodings. The sound is full round and ALMOST PERFECT. I am biwired with flat 14 g cable. I am hearing a raspyness in the high end... almost as if blown tweeters but they are not.... it is minimal but needs to go! Ideas?
pnjcic
In my system biwiring was not desirable. Parallel wiring is--running two cables from amp to speaker and then strapping upper and lower range of speaker. Actually you can try current configuration and add straps to speakers. Then you can compare.
Pnjcic, there could be a good number of culprits. But, since you said the speakers are new, give them a chance to break-in before you start hunting for a potential problem.
Arnett... kef recommends biwire. Did this parallel set up work for your system? Increase high end clarity?
Thanks
But, since you said the speakers are new, give them a chance to break-in before you start hunting for a potential problem.
Everest_audio

My first true experience with break in occurred with a new pair of Paradigm speakers. There was a raspiness on vocals that made me want to return them. It cleared up after a month or so. I know because I remember the exact album it happened with. If they are new then give them a while.
Pnjcic, Timrhu is probably right if they haven't gone through break-in. That is, they could sound somewhat horriible before break-in. But you probably know that. I wanted to try bi-wire against the recommendation of the manufacturer of my cable. I had previously started a thread asking as to the merits of bi-wire and there was no consensus. Since I seem to like to learn things the hard way, I tried a bi-wire set, wasn't thrilled, but let them break in. The manufacturer had included a set of straps because he was confident that I would not like the bi-wire. After about two weeks of break-in on the bi-wire set, I called him. At first he said to stack both terminations at speaker end on one set of speaker binding posts and add the straps. Then he said I could leave the bi-wire configuration as it was and simply add the straps. I did, and even though the straps weren't broken in, There was imediate improvement. It was as though something was wrong with the bi-wire configuration, and now, strapped, everything was right. I don't know why this is, but a wild guess is that it has something to do with the speaker crossover and some interaction with the signal which causes non-linearities. The crossover likes to be strapped (or biamped. It likes biamping, too.) Maybe this is just my speaker and not true for yours. But when I learn things the hard way, things stick.
If you could strap them with the same cable as your speaker cable without a lot of cost, couldn't hurt to try it.