Tvad:
I don't mind anyone suggesting that it might be other components. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I've changed every single component in the chain and the brashness is there on nearly every record with brass instruments (but only on forte and up passages). And it's not the amp clipping, either. I even thought it might be the equipment stand ringing, so I changed that, too. It's still there. I've even borrowed equipment that is well balanced, such as the Ayre CD player, and it's still there. Of course, some may think it's the recordings, but I don't think so.
I just read another thread in which the CAT and the FS were compared. The poster posited that the CAT had more lower midrange energy, and this is part of the frequency where the "richness" of instruments come through (and of course, the midbass). The FS sounds less rich in the midbass even using an old JVC CD player and they have too MUCH midbass, so there shouldn't ever seem to be a "leanness" in that frequency with the older JVCs. I think the older FS units were actually a bit richer in the upper bass/lower midrange, whereas the newest MK II is perhaps more "transparent." However, that transparency, to my ears, thins out the body of instruments, much as Rackon says. I mean, let's be logical, too: no component is perfect, and this just happens to be where the FS deviates from neutrality. Not a problem, per se, but it doesn't sound as dimensional as my older FS unit did.
