need more smoothness

i'd blame your speaker cable and mostly, your NAD cd player...

when i doubled up on CV-6 speaker cable my highs went from being forward-in-your-face to quite laid back and smooth. other big improvements in taming the nautilus tweaters were good power conditioning (incl. a good home-brew power cord from a hosp. grade outlet) and interconnects (i like AQ's coral line, for CDM1s you don't need anything more than good copper aka silver seemed too bright).

I agree with the poster who suggested that your problem is with your source. The 1nt is very sensitive to partnering components. Any tonal brightness in your system and the 1nts will pass it along to you. As well, the rotel amp is not the last word in warmth or refinement,very capable though it is. My suggestion would be to borrow a couple of different cd players to switch between in your system. I think you will find that the 1nt will convey the sonic differences between those players in a way that will be quite clear.As well, I would suggest that the Rotel-though very good, may not have the kind of current or stability that will bring out the best in this speaker. This is a very good speaker, by the way. It may not be your cup of tea, but given the right system the 1nts are capable of truly impressive sonics. I think you are on the right track to question your electronics

You're not imagining things. When I upgraded my system, the first thing I noticed was massed-string harshness on more than a few recordings. I have a Musical Fidelity A308 amp and Vandersteen 3a sigs--both know for being friendly and warm. The only thing I've found to tame string harshness was moving to SACD.

How about moving to vinyl - or R2R - and hearing what the master tape actually sounded like?

Patrick

You are using low-end budget components with your CDM 1NT and that's why you're getting a 'hard' sound. I have the CDM 1SE for 5 years(they are now used as rears in HT) and have upgraded my amplification from Arcam to Classe and then to Audio Research and the sound changes dramatically with every component change.

I agree with Timf that you change your electronics and cables since they are not on par with the CDM's. They are not bright speakers but just ruthlessly revealing of the upfront components. If you don't believe, try using the Arcam Alpha 10 integrated and Alpha 8 cd player(my first system) with Cardas cabling throughout and you'll see how warm the sound will get.