Source of Brightness

Audiolover might be on to something. I was also experiencing brightness from my loudspeakers (SF Guarneri's) and beginning to worry about cables, etc. But..to get eh best soundstage/imaging, I have te speakers almost 5 feet our from the back wall and ~ 3.5 ft out from the sides. Although he SFG's can in theory go down to ~ 45 Hx "in room", in this configuration the sound pressure was beginning to drop at ~ 60Hz, and was down a full 14 dB at 40 Hz. The result? I was cranking up the volume to hear the bass, and the speakers were naturally sounding VERY shrill! Well..just added a REL Strata III, and managed to bring the bass response to within 5 dB of reference from 30 Hz on up. Guess what? Not only do I now get bass..but the speakers no longer sound bright, the soundstage is huge, etc., etc. So...get a sub-woofer (after seeing a doctor about the ringing in your ears!). I have no experience with other subs, but the Strate III at $ 1295 was a revelation and extremely flexible/easy to integrate.

After recently changing tubes in my DAC there was a sudden increase in shrillness and glare. Of course, my first inclination was to blame the new tubes even though they were supposed to be an upgrade. Turned out the culprit *was* the tube change. It brought out a great deal more clarity at the higher frequencies which made the lack of room treatment obvious. Adding some sound absorbtion directly behind the speakers at the front wall cleared things up tremendously. Try stacking pillows there and at the point of first reflection on the side walls. It just may fix the problem!

Fpeel brings up a good point re: tubes. I hadn't changed the tubes (6 6922s) in my pre-amp for a year+ and my system was starting to give me headaches. I changed tubes, broke them in, and all was well. It really did make a huge difference, but tube wear creeps up on you so slowly that sometimes you forget about it. I note you have a Mesa Baron amp. How are its tubes? Maybe a different brand/type of tube etc. Good Luck. Craig

What type of output tubes does your Baron have? They ship with 5881(6L6), EL34, or KT99. Of these, only the KT99 would have any propensity towards brightness. If you have one of the other tubes, I would say the problem is your room(and I don't think you listen in a vault) or you. If you have KT99, you could try a switch to KT88, this will help. But it sounds like you are VERY sensitive to this brightness, if so try EL34.

In addition to interconnects & power cabling, what about your AC power? I had excess brightness (& some grungies) which was resolved with power conditioning. Now have two Chang Lightspeeds (a 3200 & a 9900 Amp, per dealer's recommendation) which do not limit current transients, as some other systems do. Or go whole-hog & try the PS Audio.