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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
sean
6,231 posts
 
Based on Joe's very informative post, i can see how the problem starts to snowball as volume is pushed harder. While i think that some of this will soften up over time due to speaker break-in, i too would follow the basic path that Trelja recommends.

Personally, i would try different interconnects before i would speaker cables. I think that the AQ stuff is more neutral than the StraightWire stuff and i think Joe does too. As such, start with the cables that will make the most difference right away and work your way down the line from there.

If this were my rig and i was experiencing that specific problem, i would probably aim for some Tara Lab's interconnects. Very warm and smooth and ( depending on model ) slightly reduce upper mids. This is great for getting rid of glare and harshness. You might want to try contacting the Cable Company and see what they have to say. They can give you a pretty educated recommendation based on what they have in stock to suite your situation and save you some money by buying used at the same time. Monster M-1000's might also be a reasonable choice and are available both used and brand new at discounted prices.

Depending on how well the interconnects work towards solving / reducing the problem will tell you how far and if you need to change your speaker cables. Just changing to interconnects that are better suited to your system might be enough for you.

Out of curiosity, how are the conductors of the AQ speaker cable configured ? Changing how the wires are configured in terms of geometry might help things out if they are arrayed as i think they are. Sean
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paulraphael OP
13 posts
 
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Not sure what you mean by how they're configured. Are talking about the basic design of the cable?
sounddude
17 posts
 
Paul, I would disagree with recommendations on Cardas interconnects, especially the budget ones like the Cross. Yes, they tend to be warmer than most, but they introduce a veiled sound in the mid range and offer a muddy and ill-defined bass. You may be better off with an Acoustic Zen cable which, I believe, offer much better value and performance (also warmish sounding w/o brightness, but cleaner sounding than intro Cardas cables).

Also, the Black Diamond MK3 (NOT the MK4) cones tend to take some "edge" off the top end. You might want to borrow a set from a local dealer to see if it helps.

As for power cords, I find that it makes a reasonably significant impact on the Rega 2000. I have tried Synergistic, NBS and PS Audio power cords with great success. The result is a quieter and more dynamic sound with improved detail and imaging. I do not think this will fix your brightness problem though.

Good luck!
aniwolfe
761 posts
 
I have battled the midrange glare and lower treble harshness with great success. I had a pair of JMLAB cobalts which are similarly voiced to your Triangles from what I have heard. My speaker cables were at the time Straightwire Quartets and interconnects were Straightwire Rhapsody 2. I found that my system had too much glare and upper freq's were way too unforgiving. I bought a pair of Cardas Cross speaker cables and Magnan VI intereconnects. Both of these cables are known for there warmish but detailed sound. The cable switch helped make sense of the upper midrange and lower treble...therefore making the overall sound MUCH MORE musical and pleasing to the ears. There was more body to bass and midrange. In my experience the Cardas Cross cables DID NOT veil the midrange or create a muddy bass region. I believe getting a cable upgrade will definitely move you into the right direction, in making your system sound more musical. I also found that my speakers sounded warmer when there is NO toe-in. Don't omit the Quadlinks,I would definitely give those a try.
paulraphael OP
13 posts
 
Aniwolf, how did you decide to try that combination of Cardas and Magnan? Did you try all Cardas at one point and find the others better?

Has anyone tried Virtual Dynamics cables?
I've read some high praise and spoke to Rick at VD .. he's sending me a power cord and some ICs to try out with no obligation.
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