What is wrong with my system?

Hi everyone -

I’m posting here because individually I think my components are all good, but together my system is not making music, rather is is making bright bass less noise. Honestly, I’m thinking it’s no one component, but the matching of components that is causing this issue. I would like to get everyone’s opinion as to what I’m hearing. My components are as follows:

B&W 802D (first generation diamond)
Audioquest bi-wired Indigo speaker cables

Classe CAM-200 monoblock amplifiers
Audioquest Water XLR interconnect

Bryston BP26 preamp
Audioquest Water XLR interconnect

Mark Levinson 5100 cd player (PCM slow minimum phase)

thanks in advance.

Mark Levinson 5100 CD player

onehorsepony08-21-2021 7:37pm

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109 posts total
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yogiboy Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 5,765 posts 08-22-2021 at 02:49pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete I hate to burst your bubble but any B&W that I have listened to are bright. Any change that you decide to make you will still have the problem till the cows come home!
jjss49 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 6,612 posts 08-22-2021 at 04:24pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete i agree with @yogiboy I hate to burst your bubble but any B&W that I have listened to are bright. given the words of fairly extreme frustration expressed by the op on the sound he is hearing, maybe the best bet would be to get a set of warmer, more tonally balanced speakers like harbeths or spendors or vandersteens ...of course, after confirming his speaker set up and room are ok...
joenies Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 258 posts 08-22-2021 at 04:45pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Your equipment seems to be ok as you noted. Try changing your cables. I’ve had good sound with my 801’s using Kimber cable in my second system.
russ69 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 3,543 posts 08-22-2021 at 04:51pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete A tube preamp is the economic choice for you system. You have nice stuff, it just isn’t working together. No need to dump it all or the expensive pieces, a nice warm tube preamp will do the job. personally I would not go with Audio Research for your system, more like a Cary SLP-98.
verdantaudio Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 1,500 posts 08-22-2021 at 04:54pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete The challenge is that this are bright speakers with components that are not warm enough to offset the bright speakers. There is nothing inherently bad about a bright speaker. It just needs the right equipment to balance it out. Many elite speakers are on the bright side of the spectrum. You can do a few different things. You can add treatment. An overdamped room will suck the brightness out of the system. You can change speakers. Vandersteen would do the job as an alternative or you can change equipment. My hunch is preamp and DAC would be the obvious first swaps. A warmer preamp and a warmer DAC can do wonders. There is no silver bullet one component. I would make a single change and then reevaluate. One other thing. Power conditioning does matter and have no a decent power conditioner can smooth things out a bit. I would also be curious what cables you are using. Also, are the speaker cables coiled at all. This can have a shocking impact if the cables aren’t shielded like Nordost. More you share, the more we can help.