Help. Wife says Teres 340 Is too bright.


My Teres 340 is equipped with a Origin Live Illustrious 3 arm and Benz Ebony L cart. The rest of my system is listed.
I think the TT combo sounds great. She does too, but says the highs are just a little bright. I have played with VTA but that has not fixed the problem though she says we were headed in the right direction with tail lowered.

She says that we had the Scoutmaster just right prior to buying the Teres. Funny thing is that I thought the SM was a tad bright on certain albums. But she didn't. Now I think the 340 is just right but she thinks it bright on some recordings.

The only component that I can think that would be causing this is the tonearm. I cannot imagine the Benz Ebony L as bright. Nor do I think it is the Teres. I really think we (wife & I) need to have our ears calibrated so as to agree on brightness. But since that isn't going to happen, I suppose I should figure out how to please us both. So, do you think I'm on the right track with the tonearm being the culprit? What tonearm would give a warmer presentation? Thanks for your help
128x128artemus_5
Yes, but as you say, Maril, it is more than just extra watts.

I've tried the same with my 110+ db horns. Almost to the point of having one SET channel per driver. I find I get much more presence and presentation with the Lectron. I do have another Doshi-Lectron, but they are not configured close enough to use both at this time. But keep in mind that what is happening is that there is less and less demand on the power supplies and thus more clean, clear headroom.

Kind of the same thing you're saying, but with a little more sauce.
Artemus,

Your statement that one of the differences is that you now play your system louder "because you can" raises a number of possibilities. Any comparisons made at different volume levels is almost impossible to assess. At lower levels, high frequency problems will be much less evident -- because the ear is less sensitive to high frequencies at lower levels, because the electronics are less likely to be stressed and distorting, because the room will be less likely to be suffering from excessive reverberation, and because the turntable itself will be less likely to be suffering from feedback problems.

Also, your statement suggests that you had problems with higher volume playback before making the switch that are ameliorated somewhat by the switch so that you "can" now play at a higher volume. Do you have an idea why you could not play at a higher volume before? Did you have feedback problems? Do you have similar issues (or other problems) when playing CDs or other sources? Answers to such questions will make it easier to determine where in your system you are having problems.
I suppose somebody could bi-monobloc (2 BAT VK-150 SE) for a total of 4 monoblocs. And if it really sounded better, I'm sure there are audiophiles who would do it. I also imagine it would introduce new problems matching gain.

The point is, if higher wattages strongly correlated with better performance for efficient to moderately efficient speakers, then more goners would be bi-monoblocing. Well, at least driving their speakers with more watts.

Seriously though, I am open to a scientific explanation as to why 150 watts should sound better with 106db efficient speakers when compared to enough watts to get the job done well.

In general, I postulate that it is more difficult to build a muscial amplfier outputting more watts rather than fewer watts. So, in a perfect market, I imagine that a goner would do better putting his or her budget into the best quality amp that puts out enough watts to do the job.
Jj2468,
I think, people like Ralph (Atmasphere), would be in a much better position to explain the technicalities.
And of course, Victor Khomenko could do this as well, but unfortunately, he doesn't post much in this forum.