Transients hurting my ears on hifi solid state amps
I've looked at many discussions on listening fatigue and similar topics, but haven't really found the answer to the specific problem I've been having.
To me, modern higher end solid state amplifiers tend have too much slam or too sharp transients and that ends up hurting my ears even at 60db levels. Even listening to mellow jazz, the piano notes are just uncomfortable to listen to because of the attack.
I currently have Buchardt S300 Mk II speakers, which are not high sensitivity by any stretch, and are rather smooth sounding, but I don't know if they could contribute to the issue somehow?
The worst case regarding amplifiers I tried was the Rogue Sphinx V2, which is 100W hybrid Class D with tube preamp. Another I had at home for an extended period and had an issue with was the Arcam SA20, which should be a relatively smooth sounding amplifier, and it did get a little closer to what I was looking for.
I currently have a Primaluna Dialogue Premium integrated and I'm very happy with it. The amp I tried to replace was a Marantz PM6005, which is also very smooth. Both are under the recommended power rating of the speakers (even though that's relative for a tube amp), so I'm wondering whether that could be part of it.
I listen mostly to vinyl (Graham Slee Reflex M preamp) with some digital too (Denafrips Pontus II). Both are relatively smooth and vinyl, while usually being softer, doesn't solve the issue.
I'm looking to switch back to solid state (class AB) for various reasons and I was wondering if anybody had had similar experiences and recommendations for amps? Most amps, especially higher end, tend to emphasize the dynamics, punch, agility, etc. and I struggle to find anything that would seem to fit the bill. Tubes seem to do the trick for me, especially with some tube rolling, but not sure where to go with solid state. The budget would be around 2000$.
op room and setup - a few pictures speaks a thousand words buchardt s300's are hardly sharp sounding speakers, i had them, they are warm sounding, with a rolled off tweeter solid state amps will accentuate treble much more prominently than a primaluna, which is also warm and fairly rolled off my money is on the room, or just how your hearing is easily irritated by treble |
Hi there,I found the primaluna took a while to settle down.I tried several things to lower the frequency.Take the speakers further out from the wall,it could be your speakers with other things like power sockets and cords,maybe interconnect.Shunyata pc are smooth. .You will get there.My pl hp is a good thing,i have since gone back to seperates,and love it. |
Are you happy with it, and it does not have the shrillness?
Is the Marantz the shrill one?
Ok - so digital and vinyl both showing thing the same thing, sort of rules out the digital and vinyl being bad - or they are both equally bad.
What are those?
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Thanks everyone for the advice. There are indeed a lot of things to look at that could help out, even though I still feel there's something related to air pressure and very fast transients that's particularly bugging my sensitive ears, and that it's coming mainly from the amplifier. I've had 3 amplifiers that were fine (Audio Analogue Puccini SE is the one I haven't mentioned) and two that were not, all other things being equal. But certainly working on the rest might make more amplifiers work for me. I'll see if I find a picture of my main listening room, it's temporarily not used as such, so I can't take one now. I do have panels in first and second reflection points, as well as some extra panels and bass traps. But I tried the amps mostly in another room, which was less treated, so there might be something to that also. My interconnects are mostly Morrow Cables. I know they are not the smoothest and especially the ones containing a part of silver could be particularly problematic. But I didn't find that changing them to other interconnects (QED for instance) helped, other than losing a lot of definition and clarity. I will try to find some good cables to try out. I use Isotek Initium and Premier power cables mostly because they're the only ones doing a Swiss version. No power conditioning, just an audiophile power strip without any filtering. The power cords do make the amps have more clarity and rhythm, and I believe the transients are faster with those cables. I did also try with normal cables, but they didn't completely solve the issue. Perhaps I should change my power socket (I'm renting, so wanted to avoid) at home so I could try other power cables, such as the Shunyata. Thanks for the recommendations again. I would love to try Pass Labs or First Watt amps, and they are on top of my endgame list, but I would like to avoid class A because of the heat and electricity consumption. They are also currently out of my budget unfortunately (ideally max 2000$, perhaps stretching to 3000$). Because of the current use case, an integrated with auto standby would be better than having to manually power on and power off various components (e.g. when watching TV or putting background music). Some other recommendations were also too expensive. But if it's correct as @audioman58 states that moving to higher end amplifiers would help, that would be very positive news. From the ones listed, Naim is the one closes to my budget and easiest to test around here. Hegel would also be a possibility, even though stretching the budget a bit and I don't like paying for a streamer and a DAC I won't use. Perhaps a used one would make sense as proposed by @curiousjim, even though I'm not sure I need to go as far up the line as H360. I also checked the Hafler amps, somewhat limited supply here in Europe and I'm not sure I want to go the vintage route for now. Any recommendations regarding Naim, could the Nait 5SI be ok or should I move up the line or go with an older model? |
