Magnepan 3.7i vocals sound harsh

OP, just finished reading all the above posts and you've gotten lots of good responses. One thing I remember reading about was a similar situation as yours, harsh vocals/good instruments on a particular recording. Turns out, the singers mic had been wired in reverse polarity, everything else in normal polarity. And because you have some of the most resolving speakers around (I own Vandies, but I do know how good Maggies sound), I believe that the resolution of your system is bringing up the good, the bad, and the ugly from your music collection. My experience is similar. In fact, I mentally grade each of my albums into classes A, B, C, D, and F based purely on sound quality.

Tom

It's been awhile but I didn't want to leave my saga without an ending. Since moving to the Pass equipment and putting many more hours on the speakers they have settled in beautifully, I guess they just needed many hours of play to fully break in. Again thank you to all who offered help.

bump

When I owned the Halo Integrated, I found it had a smooth presentation overall, but oddly, it was also grating.

I wonder if you’re hearing intermodulation distortion. It’s an inherent weakness of planar-magnetic designs. It seems some amps alleviate the problem while others exacerbate it.