Last Critical Tweak… how to quell occasional high harshness…?
Dear Audiogon Community,
I am so impressed with the insight and obsession we all share with this musical alchemy of electrons. I write to address a simple problem through as simple (and hopefully relatively inexpensively) as possible… though before such elegant maneuvers, an overly verbose and fussy description:
Harshness in the highs…. Trumpets and some vocals now make my ears shrill at times. My aging ears! It is so close to musical bliss, but this slight edgyness must be quelled!
This song, horns seem to shatter.
This song, vocals seem to pierce.
I recently leveled an entirely new system. My last tweak was to move my main gain tube to Mullards, and the Brimar NOS tubes to the outer gain location. The mullards afforded a richness and expansiveness, a forward mid and elegance, but introduced the occasional shrillness which I seek to quell.
My musical electron dance is as follows on the streaming side:
Nagra Streamer —> Audio Zen MC2 Coax —> Halo Audio Spring 2 Level 3 Kitsune —> Duelund 16 GA Interconnect —> Prima Luna Dialogue Premium HP —> Brimar NOS outer tube and Mullard NOS main gain tube —> Gold Lion KT77 Power tubes —> Duelund 16GA Speaker wire —> Pure Audio Project Duet Horn’s with a gold silver oil Mundorf Cap upgrade —> Duelund wire to the horn and the 15” Woofer.
Fun yes! Devine! But how to quell this one last occasional shrillness?
Thoughts:
-Speaker Wire to 12 GA
-DAC - Amp Interconnect changed to something that mellows out the shrill
-Main Gain tube upgraded from a Mullard NOS to something else… (I believe there was a slightly higher grade Mullard?)
-Nagra Stream - DAC Coax cable upgraded to something mellower….?
Open to any and all suggestions! Thank you so much for your insights.
R.
You could buy these to compare to the Duelund, and at this price if they don’t provide a meaningful improvement you can sell them likely for a profit so little/no risk. These interconnects retail for $920 so would be an interesting comparison. https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650234922-acoustic-zen-matrix-reference-ii/ |
In addition to the ones I just recommended there are these AZ Silver Ref II at an excellent price that retail for $1750.
You could also try direct sellers like Triode Wire Labs, Morrow, Veritas, etc. who offer generous trial periods and all get very good reviews. I’d also mention Silversmith Fidelium interconnects that don’t appear on their website yet but well worth contacting them about. Just some more options to ponder. |
@whyrichard There you go. Cardas are generally my go to cable, never any irritations, resolution/transparency goes up as you go up the line. I borrowed large number of cables over fair amount of years from CableCompany, and I came out with Cardas at the end of things. As for Clear IC, just happened to purchase one just a few minutes ago! Also use Golden Reference, oldie but goodie. Still don't get the reports of shrillness with Duelund cable, as IC's they on warm, lower resolution side of things, other issues in system or lack of burn is problem if hearing upper mid and high issues. |
