I've chased and solved the very same problem in my own system and it wasn't the room acoustics ... see if this is similar
You system sounds wonderful 99.5% of the time ...it does everything right from sound staging to top to bottom coherency ... nothing sticks out or glares in the midrange and extreme's ... top and bottom end are extended and well defined
Everything sounds fine until there is a very brief and powerful peak/passage (Crescendo) called for, that demands a large draw of current for a very brief period
Hint ... it isn't the amp clipping or it would be shutting off briefly
For that brief nano second or so ... the whole presentation goes to Hell in a Hand Basket ...
The sound stage shrinks to a small ball in between your speakers ... the sound congels ... it ESPECIALLY sounds like someone is shouting rather than singing ... and dynamics get looped off on the trailing edge ...
You also notice that this happens only on PEAKS and is not connected or related to any normal upper octave frequency brightness
It's like you're driving down a very smooth highway at a high rate of speed and you hit a deep pot hole abruptly ... and it's over that quickly
The problem of the brief shouty-ness is probably caused by the OPAMPs in the CD player's SS output stage not being able to deliver enough current to drive the IC and the load on a strong PEAK and they loose their linearity momentarily when placed under the high demand for current during the PEAK/Loud passages
This is not an issue of impedance or voltage mismatch between components ... it is the Op Amps distorting because the can't deliver the current required in that brief high demand period
When the music becomes demanding, the OPAMPs will loose their linearity for a brief moment, distorting and that distortion then confuses and causes the Negative Feedback loop, to oscillate and ring while trying to maintain the signals integrity from input to out put
The negative feedback loop try's to maintain the signal from input to output but when the chip OP Amp run out of deliverable current for that nano second on a PEAK and distorts .. the negative feedback loop picks up the distortion and starts oscillating and ringing for that brief moment that the Op Amps can't maintain the needed current to dive the intergrated and are out of linearity
The ringing which is very brief, and only on the peaks of demanding passages is perceived as "Shouty-ness" and seems to be pretty common with CD players that use SS output stages with chip OPAMPS ... although I don't think many are aware of it or blame the problem on something else
Here's more proof ... no matter what volume you are listening to your system at ... low, medium, or high ... this distortion and shouty-ness will be present on all strong peaks as it is the Op Amps in the source causing the problem and sending the distortion to the next component ... the intergrated amp ... and not the intergrated amp's lack of power because the distortion is still present at low listening levels on the peaks ... so the amp can't be running out of power at low and medium listening levels
If this sounds like your problem ... tell me what you use for a source and I might have the solution ... and if this does not sound like your problem ... it's a good thing I put on my Flame Suit and Eye Protection on
