Help. Wife says Teres 340 Is too bright.

Dear Artemus5: I would like to add some thoughs on the subject.

I don't know which load impedance you are using, due to its very low internal resistance ( 5 ohms ) that cartridge will performs ( in a high gain active phono stage ) very good at around 100 ohms. The right load impedance is a critical and important factor to the cartridge can shows at its best. So you have to be sure that your cartridge is loaded right on target.

I have no doubt ( knowing that cartridge. ) that your Ebony is a lot better that what you and your dearest wife are hearing.

Your analog rig has very good stand alone items: TT/tonearm/cartridge, you already pay around 10K for them ( maybe more, I can't be sure ) and you pay that amount because of its high quality performance: why any one ( with al respect to you. ) want to pass that high quality cartridge signal to all those " torment low quality road " that conforms your phono stage/cables and connectors/SUT/more cables and connectors ?

I concur with Doug and Tom that now with a better cartridge signal you need ( at least ) better audio links to process that signal even if change it the load impedance you " solve " your wife's problem.

Dear friend, you don't buy a Ferrari to drive in a " terrain field/land " ( full of stones, deeps, trees and the like. ) or you don't buy that same Ferrari with bicycle tires .

At the end what you want is that that cartridge can shows its real quality performance that today it did not.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

May I suggest that you call Alan at Silverline. He is a very nice guy.

Your speaker is about 93db @ 8 ohms and has a silk dome tweater. It is largely voiced using moderate power to moderately low power tube amps. A friend of mine drives a pair with a 300b amp and uses a lesser benz cartridge and it sounds great. The Silverline is designed to allow you to take advantage of the benefits of low to moderate power tube amps. The CJ is likely designed for 4ohm speakers at less than 90db efficiency. (See the white paper at the Atmasphere website).

Two-hundred fifty-watts of solid state CJ into this speaker is not a good match for the speaker or for the amp.

I don't think a suggestion that you buy vaguely "better" gear is helpful. All your gear is good gear. IMHO, start with a good power match between speaker and (tube)amp. Then go for tweaks, treatments, cables, etc.. Jeff

Even without messing with spending more money to invest in a different amp, I think it may be helpful for you to find out what range of adjustments are possible with your current setup.

You tried VTA and you said your spouse thought it was going in the right direction. You can also try increasing tracking force and observing the results. Palasr made the third suggestion above which is adjusting the loading. To answer your question about loading, yes it could have an effect on the sound output with a different arm/cart combo. The best way to find out is to adjust it and note the results.

I think if you are up for it and spend a bit of time messing with these parameters, you may find a happy medium that you and your spouse can live with.

As for the amplifier change suggestions, they may yield even greater results. But that's no gaurenntee it's going to fix your immediate concern. Besides, there is never any harm in knowing how your analog rig responds to these adjustments cartridge suggested above. It could come in handy in the future.

Hope this helps,
Dre

Jj2468,
Regarding Silverline Audio speakers- I beg to differ. I owned Bolero, and it absolutely did need a lot of power to sound its best.
90 w/ch. of PP tube power was not enough. 150 wt/ch of triode power (BAT-150 SE) was significantly better.
I tried SET amp- was awful.
I have a suspicion, that many manufacturers are rather optimistic in their sensitivity claims.

Maril555,
I have not heard the Bolero. Have you heard the Sonata?

What SET amp did you pair with the Bolero?