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Help me tame the brightness of my Triangles

I bought a pair of Triangle Zerius speakers a month ago, and in some ways they're the most amazing speakers I've listened to. Incredibly open, detailed, fast, and dynamic (as advertised).

But I also find them to be too bright and too hard for my ears, at least with a good amount of my music. I've taken care of the obvious things, like break-in (approaching 300 hours now) and matching with a warm system (Rega planet 2000 cd player, Unison Research Unico integrated amp with Mullard cv4003 tubes). I put little thought into cables .. i'm currently using straight wire rhapsody 2 interconnects and 20 feet of audioquest gr8 speaker cables.

The hardness comes in the upper midrange/lower trebble, typically at high or moderately high volumes, and typically on vocals and guitars. Especially if the recording is at all aggressive. The brightness is just an overall sense of the tonal balance. It seems lighter weight than what I hear in live music. I expect the music to have more weight and roundness (this is why I have the Planet and the Unico to begin with).

I've played with position and toeing in. My room is large (about 16 x26 feet with 10 to 11 foot ceilings). It's slightly bright and splashy, although i believe most of what I'm hearing is the direct sound of the speakers (the tonal balance is the same when I get real close).

I'm wondering about new interconnects .. perhaps cardas. the Quadlinks seem like they'd make the most sense. Any thoughts on this? How big a difference they might make? Would the Cardas Cross cables be unreasonably pricey in this system?

I'm also wondering about tubes. The Unico with the mullards has a wonderful, liquidy midrange, and great transients and dynamics. Are there any tubes that might darken the sound and soften the lower trebble without killing detail, dynamics, transients, and soundstaging?

I suspect most people would find my system sounds more balanced than I do ... my ears seem to be pretty sensitive to brightness and hardness. But it still seems strange that these speakers that everyone seems to like can sound bright even with these other componens I've chosen.

Thank you for any thoughts you might have.
paulraphael
jfacker
85 posts
 
I have Cometes and have found the speed and detail addicting, but I do believe they require tremendous attention to tweakage to sound their best, and not take your head off. I found that putting them on truly massive stands helped. Not a factor with the Zerius, but maybe the spike thing is worth looking at. I also use a relatively mellow integrated (Audio Refinement), and discovered that it's a great combination if everything else is in order. I use Wireworld Eclipse ICs with Harmonic Tech Pro-11 speaker cable and this, to my ears, totally kicks ass. But you will need a smooth, high quality source to tie it all together. The best sound in my system is from vinyl or SACD. I'm not familiar with the Planet 2000 but my guess is it's no slouch. I would say try some different wire before you give up on the Triangles (but hey, do what ya gotta do!)

Have fun,

Jeff

BTW: Wireworld is the most neutral cable I've tried in my system...I know this means virtually nothing but I want to emphasize that IMHO it is neither zippy, nor a dark cable you'd use to "mellow out" your system.
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,541 posts
 
Paul:

If your CV4003's are the mid 80's version which has recently popped up on the market (mine were marked "KQDD"), then this may be your problem. Pick up a pair of 1960's GE/RCA/Sylvania 12au7's (all are a safe bet).

Both the 12au7/CV4003 and 12at7/CV4024 versions of these tubes sounded like nails on glass in my system, which is not on the bright side to start with. I have received emails of likewise results from other owner's/user's of these tubes.
ksales
228 posts
 
You might try audiopoints. There are many threads on this product which you can search. I bought sistrum racks with the brass audiopoints integrated in the rack. They had a very positive effect on the soundstage. I also agree that brightness could result from acoustics. Frankly before spending a lot on new cable and other core equip. I would work on acoustics and racks to get the environment of the listening area straight and then see what you need.
soix
9,456 posts
 
I'll piggyback off Sean and Philojet. Like Tellig, Srajan Ebean is very familiar with Triangle speakers(he uses Triangle's Ventis in one of his reference systems). His sight is sixmoons.com and he may prove to be very helpful.

I'd also recommend the new Acoustic Zen Matrix Ref. II, which is detailed but resists harshness and will not cheat you on the upper mids/lower treble -- very musical. If they don't work I would try Zcables, which offer similarly priced cables and I've heard are just a tad warmer than the AZs in a head-to-head comparison.

Best of luck.
benthar
42 posts
 
Your speaker cable might be a factor in the brightness.

My limited experience with Audioquest speaker cable is that they are great, but do have a slight hardness in the range you described, which can be fatiguing over a long listening session, depending on your taste and system.

JPS ultraconductor or IXOS (some of the lower-cost IXOS) might be worth checking out. Music Metre (?) is also rumored to be a little smoother in the treble than Audioquest.

If it turns out the speaker cable is not the issue, another
possibility is component isolation. Sometimes hardness in the sound is cleared up by changing the isolation method for source/amp/etc. IMO Audioquest sorbothane pucks are a good starting point simply because they are fairly neutral sounding.
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