Well... guess I have to jump in the rabbit hole of speaker cables... lol

captbeaver

It’s not your Belden cables.   They are “industry standard” cables long used in the pro realm for many of your favorite recordings.  They would not be used if they had some weird defect like “raspy highs” and all the recordings using those cables would have “raspy highs.”  But the don’t.
You can look up measurements for those exact cables (e.g. on audiohilics) and see they measure superbly.

FWIW I use the Belden 10awg speaker cables (from BJ Cables) and my system certainly doesn’t have raspy highs.  I’d hate that.

Beware of “friends” bearing expensive cables.  ;-)

Look elsewhere in your system including room acoustics, speaker positioning.  Remember that different speakers interact in different ways with a room/listener position.

dweller
Does this happen on all music? The other night, I was playing A "Living Stereo" SACD and there was so much junk coming out I thought "damn, I must have blown a tweeter". Not the case. The "junk" was in the recording!

>>>>Geez, where’s Dolby when you need it? 😳

I have changed the pre with a cool tube “chifi” pre... replaced all tubes with solid tubes ( I’m a guitarist and use only tube amps, so I know the process... same. And to be honest, with the tube upgrade it sounds very very good.
xlr and rca switched... same

I REALLY hope it’s not the Mac pre. I have always wanted one and finally got the money to get it... I would be bummed.

I’m really hoping the A21 will do the trick. Mr Kelly thinks they will be a great match. 

This two channel thing is getting complicated... lol

When I was rocking the Crown pre and DC 300 with the L 100’s life was so simple. Lol

I had Martin Logans before the 10 T’s and had nothing but problems with their reliability. Went to the 10 T’s and really want to get it right and enjoy listining again. 

I am looking forward to the surprise cables coming.

Thanks to all who take the time to help me. It’s a frustrating period...