How to tame the midrange???

Gmood is in my experience wrong and will only make your system brighter, and its a waste to have two preamps in any system. B&W makes for one of the finest multichannel systems on the market and using only two channels when listening to music is a waste of your investment.

The Carver prepro is pretty mediocre and primitive and the Denon 3910 could be out of spec (its seems a good deal I come across on their digital output frequencies are) which will make it harsh as a transport, you should never use the analog outs of any DVD player BTW. You can have your Denon checked for its digital output frequency (it would be a warranty repair) and sell the Carver and atleast get an Arcam....but only one brand of prepro will truely fix your problem based on the info you have given.

Having setup about 20? B&W surround systems with Meridian, the grain in the midrange comes from the tweeked up treble for the hard of hearing. To their credit B&W has made this peak in treble very deliberate and very fixable. Meridian processors(any), their treble tilt control (-4 to -6)perfectly reverse the treble grit and grain caused by the jumped up sales floor treble and I have to say this combination is superb. You will have a new speaker, it makes that much difference.

The hardest part about owning the Meridian is people here who haven't heard it won't think its better than their two channel system. I will tell you Gmoods advice will only change your grit into glare. Because its a speaker amplitude problem, not a an electronics issue like you might think. Your cables are not adding grit either.

"I listen to Comcast Music Choice digital music channels quite a bit through their Motorola box. I think that makes a stronger case for adding a good DAC. I am new at this and rely exclusively on Goner's advise. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated."

I know this maybe obvious but your prepro should be a great DAC?, that is one of its 5 jobs! No? Upgrade your prepro and upgrade, DAC, Pre and overall sound at one time.

the path less traveled......

"the grain in the midrange comes from the tweeked up treble for the hard of hearing"

HeHe, thats nice of them to build speakers for the hard of hearing....wondering why they don't use this in their ad copy.

Dave

Baffled: You have so many things to try along the way. And I suspect you will discover huge refinements as you seek to determine the original problem with the midrange anomolies. Rather than guess with so many changes, what I would suggest you do is try to find someone in your area, maybe an A'gon member, with lots of experience in speaker placement, differences between cables, line stages and DACs. Someone who also understands the benefits of power conditioners, room treatments and isolation would be an even greater asset.

I have befriended a couple local A'gon members and they have thrown so many ideas and suggestions my way that have lead to major improvements in my system. And they were right on from the start so I did not have to try things over and over to get them right. Such relationships become great friendships and both sides learn much from such an exchange. It's a great feeling to help out another audiophile.

A good relationship with a dealer too is a good idea but they will most likely steer you to the products they carry.

So indicate where you live and maybe someone here will offer to come over and give you some tips and who knows where that might lead.

John

velocitydls@yahoo.com ,

No where in my post did I mention Baffled using two preamps.I said to swap out the processor for a real preamp.
Yes Meridian processors are great..for movies that is. For music these units suck! His focus is two channel not multi channel music. Maybe you should reread the entire thread before singling out a poster.

How will changing to a good tube preamp and going to a good Dac with a better power supply than the dvd player make the speakers sound bright? Guy you have no idea what your talking about. Maybe some of the B&W stuff is tipped up in the treble..will not argue that. I listened to an older pair of 800 series a few months back at a friends home. These speakers didn't have the tipped up tweeter as you describe.

I've owned a Meridian Stack and it will not give the performance in two channel as a dedicated preamp...sorry no dice!
It's apparent you've only listened to multi channel and HT.LOL

IME most of the harshness and grain comes from crappy opamps and noisy/ bad power supplies in the equipment upstream with poor filtering. Bad connections can cause this also. Hardly ever is it the speaker that causes grain. Especially a speaker of this caliber.

Jafox......that's a great idea. I am in Silver Spring, Maryland. Just outside of DC. If anyone wants to help me spend some hard earned cash, c'mon over! If you have been into this hobby for more than a year, your knowledge is no doubt superior to mine. My e mail is ahcjmh1@prodigy.net

Gmood1.... As I was reading the response from Velocitydls I knew his advice went against the grain of everything I have learned here over the past year. As much as I appreciate that he took the time to try to help, I think he is either a very proud Meridian owner ( nothing wrong with that), or a Meridian seller(Hmmmm), or just not that well informed. Either way, I am sticking to plan A as outlined above.
I have settled on the Audio Mirror DAC and hope to place the order today. After reading about it here and elsewhere I have learned that it tones down and smooths out the treble without sounding too tube like. Also does bass well. There were enough descriptions of the sound that I felt ok with buying it before I hear it. Also, the descriptions were the same in every review I read.
The preamp will be a different story. I plan to listen to a few preamps in my system before I buy. Aesthetix Calypso is on my short list. Is there another preamp I should be considering? Hopefully for less than the 4500.00 Calypso? Balanced outputs and a remote are the only absolute requirements I am aware of at this time.