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Stereo system Too Bright

I have a stereo that consists of a Marantz CD-63SE, an Adcom SLC-505 passive pre, an Adcom GFA-535II power amp, Axiom M40ti floorstanding speakers, Phoenix Gold $20 interconnects, and standard Monster speaker cable.

Lately I have really noticed that it sounds too bright. With some recordings, it seems like there are two tracks, one for the hi-hat and snare, and one for the rest of the music. cymbals always seem to come out over the top of the mix, to the point where it is bordering on unlistenable. At the very least it's extremely annoying.

I'm wondering how I can get rid of this problem. My preamp doesn't have a tone control, so I'm thinking that I'll probably have to go for other interconnects or maybe alter the speaker cabinets somehow (by stuffing them or something). I don't know how you would go about doing this, but it seems like about all I can do - there are only so many components that could be at fault. Does anyone know what my problem is? Hopefully these components aren't just totally mismatched...

I hope you guys can shed some light on this issue.

Thanks,
Chris
metonymy3
bigkidz
3,381 posts
 
Whoa, how far out into the room are the speakers? Change the position to see what happens first. Next get a 14" bike inner tube, blow it up some and set it under the CDP to see if the sound becomes less bright. Do the same to the preamp. If not, then try a few different power cords and ICs to see what happens, borrow them from a dealer. Try an Acouistic Zen Tsuami power cord and Matrix ICs to see what happens.

Happy Listening.
gregm
3,405 posts
 
When the passive + amp combo sounds thin, it's usually a matter, either of a) impedance (signal transfer b/ween pre+amp) OR b) upstream component.
In your case it's probably the cdp. I've heard it and it sounded to me more or less as you described it.
OTOH, I would hardly expect that engineers at adcom know nothing about circuit analysis and therefore can't choose a volume pot (the passive) that bridges with their own amps!

Kotta's suggestion for solid core is also good BUT ONLY if you live in a relative quiet environment, free from stray fields (otherwise you just could send the system into oscillation)!
photon46
1,082 posts
 
With all due respect to those suggesting solutions which involve cables, wires, etc., replacing the cd player & preamp first would be much more likely to yield "big bang for buck" improvements. The cd player is quite old now and you can do much better than the marantz cd-63 without spending big bucks. I also agree with the suggestion to try a tubed preamp in combo with solid state power. Not to dimininsh the importance of good wire, but trying to use wire as a tone control to cover up sonic sins is a quick route to frustration.
a_e_watkins
106 posts
 
Chris, I am not familiar with your other equipment, however I can tell you that I owned the Marantz CD-63SE for a very short time and it was so bright and harsh, that I could not stand to listed to the system for long extended periods of time.

So I think that changing your CD player would help your situation greatly.
musicslug
430 posts
 
I also had a CD63se - it's way bright and thin. If you can find a used but decent DAC, that will help a lot, but you'll also want to get a 'reclocking' device between the CDP and the DAC. You could probably pick both up for not too much $, but at that point you could probably get a comparable newer (used) CDP for that kind of $... Also, power conditioning (even a cheaper unit) or isolation can be pretty useful with a cheap CDP. The used price for the CD63 these days - $100-$150 tells you everything: that's what it's worth.
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