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Request advice-need "brighter" speakers than Totem Hawks

Hi All-
Love the community here; first time poster.
My gear:
i have a pair of Totem Hawks, driven by Sim Audio W-5 amp and P-5 pre. I listen primarily to Redbook CDs via a Marantz SA8005. Cables are all Audience AU24SE. I listen both through a modded Eastern Electric DAC (op amp upgraded, tube removed) and direct from CDP to preamp (teensy sound difference between DAC/no DAC, if any). My medium sized room is pretty dead sonically (carpet, textile window coverings).

My Issue:
The high frequencies are uncrisp, rolled off severely, muted, and just lacking generally, especially on contemporary works (jazz, rock). I don’t hear cymbals, hi-hats, or rich, crisp snare drums (yeah, I’m a drummer). Listening to my favorite disks is a deeply disappointing experience, Though classical sounds ok to fine. I am thinking that I need brighter speakers than the Hawks (though there are numerous folks who extoll Sim Audio plus Totem speakers, something is not right. I do have a bit of hi-freq. hearing loss from playing percussion for over 40 years (amateur), but I’ve heard a number of less expensive systems that sound better to me. My first thought is to go for a used pair of B&Ws (CM5s?) or Vandersteens (assuming good WAF on the latter) to swap out for the Hawks. I’m on a budget, but am not above selling some of the current gear to pay for the right equipment.

I would love love to hear some suggestions or alternate diagnoses/ideas. I am not limiting myself to speakers; I’ve tried a bunch of different cables to no good effect. Analysis Plus silver cables, for example, were a disaster with this gear, for example, FYI. Thanks in advance for any sage thoughts you choose to offer. -Bruce


bheiman
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,805 posts
 
You say you've had the problem with the speakers since new. Just how new are they? I ask this because my Clearwave Duet 6 monitors took a long time to break in and had similar sounding highs to what you describe. All is well now.

What helped to break them in was playing the Ayre Irrational but Efficacaious CD Enhancement Disc. Using glide tone sweeps, pink, white and brown noise, in mono and in and out of phase, it will quickly break in components. All components. I was surprised at how different my system sounded after playing it. Hope that helps.

All the best,
Nonoise
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,348 posts
 
Golden Ear speakers certainly are NOT bright!
mb1audio
151 posts
 
Turn your amp off and walk over to one of your speakers. Unplug the speaker cable from the binding post. Put them back on, but swap positions. Then do some listening. Your system will either sound a lot better or a lot worse. 

Make sure you reverse the speaker cables on just 1 speaker, not both. And just swap the end by the speaker. Leave the other end of the cable by the amp alone. Also, you can't hurt any of your gear by doing this. There is 0 risk.  
erik_squires
16,009 posts
 
@stereo5 It would help your argument if you compared Golden Ear speakers to others you felt had similar tonal balances.

Best,

Erik
grinnell
1,088 posts
 
Crisp.....Ref 3A de Capo
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