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CD suggestions and help with Musical Fid. and BMW?

System: Musical fidelity A3 pre and amp, B&W 804 Nautilis, tara 1000 speaker cables, tara prime interconnect, Old Marantz CD changer. 45 days old system.

I love the system on many jazz, rock CDs, but on some CDs and tracks, the highs (cymbols, etc) can dominate sound at expense of mids/lows, making the sytems sound overly bright and unbalanced. Does anyone have any suggestions on CD players and/or tweaks to warm up and balance the sound? I tried the MFA3 CD with some improvement but not enough to justify the price. Also, I would prefer a changer, but most higer end gear seems to be single tray. Thanks for your help!!
jeffsel
rlb61
787 posts
 
My rig is a MF Nu-Vista CD, A3cr Preamp, A300cr Power Amp (225 wpc), B&W N804s, Nu-Vista Silver IC's and Coincident CST-1 speaker cables. From the looks of your system, I'd say it's the Tara Labs cable/ICs which are the problem. The Nu-Vista Silvers really give fabulous detail without being bright and the Coincident Speaker Cable gives a full, rich sound - the 804s really sing with this set-up. I've always found Tara cabling to be a bit lean and bright.

Hope this helps.
natalie
404 posts
 
Get a grip.
This is not a Cable issue but and Old Cd player that is not on par with the rest of your system.
Buy a proper CD player and go from there.
Silver wire will only make your highs highher
jeffloistarca
1,004 posts
 
I agree with Natalie, but choose to be a little more diplomatic about it. If you could give us an idea what your budget is, we can suggest some good CD players to choose from. And yes, get used to a single drawer.
jeffsel OP
16 posts
 
Thanks for all of your responses. I would spend up to 2.5K on a cd player (my guess as to what's appropriate given the other components) if the impact was big enough. Regarding the cables, they are harder to demo given the current variety of dealers out there, so i'm not sure how to proceed. I'm very interested to CD recommendations given my system and concerns, and any ideas for demoing cables.
rlb61
787 posts
 
I disagree with you, Natalie. Jeff said his problem was that the highs are overly dominant, thereby making the sytem sound overly bright and unbalanced. IMHO, that symptom is a cable issue. If he had said that his highs were grainy or that the system sounded weak, I would agree that it was his old CD player.
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