MC402 vs FPB 300cx

As mentioned earlier in the thread, I have a FPB-300C (the 400cx predecessor). Keep in mind, even from stand-by status, this amp seems to take about 30 minutes of playing to truly sound it best. As you have found, you can tell it’s working by the heat. You play quietly and it stays coolish-warm. When you turn it up, it gets downright hot…don’t touch your forearm to it when playing loud (from my experience).

Also, I began with the 8TC speaker cables (pre-Krell in my case), and I can tell you from my own experience that there is more "life" in other cables. The 8TC is decent, but your system has surpassed them for sure.

Regarding glare - to be honest, changes in my source have had the most profound effect on anything that could be considered glare. I have an Esoteric DV-50, and I didn't realize how much glare there was until The Upgrade Company worked it over. It is very strange to me how the music can become more extended at the top-end while at the same time having less glare and being easier to listen to, but that is what happened in my case. My description seems contradictory...I know. FWIW, only after the Upgrade Company did the work on my player did I ever notice significant changes with ICs and PCs as well. Before then, changes in those cables were nearly impossible to detect.

As far as speaker cabling; I have heard big changes in different speaker cables, and surprisingly, I have ended up with an all silver cable. I can hear it now from those reading this…eeesh...Krell AND silver...sounds bad right...not at all. These no-longer-available silver speaker cables give the music more body and "roundness/realness" than anything else I tried, and it is the only silver speaker cable I ever tried…I think.

As a suggestion, you might want to try Reality speaker cables. I tried them a few months back and I felt my existing cables were better (and should be for the price); nevertheless, the Reality cables gave a nice warmth and musicality to my system. They are not at all expensive and have a good return policy. Actually, I’d call them a bargain for the money.

Just my 2 cents…maybe it worth less than that.

Dbld-thanks so much for your write up, helps to hear you had a similar experience.

I am getting a set of Aud 23's just to listen to in a week or so. I will start my search with those as far as speaker cables goes, then move along if they don't work to my liking. Synergistic Research? They make a cable specifically for B&W.

Although the culprit could be my interconnects in the end...Nordost from source to pre, from pre to amp. Possible.

I would also suggest looking into the Cable Company's demo library. You pay in very little (5%) but get to try all kinds of stuff (PCs, ICs, and speaker cables). They also have a database of experience from other users and their specific gear that might also help speed up the process for you.

I am doing this with PCs. Buying and selling on AudiogoN is a valuable resource for sure...if done right, but this way you know exactly what you’re getting into ahead of time. Plus, that 5% goes towards any purchase you might make.

I haven’t actually done this yet myself, so maybe I am missing something. I have reserved some cables that should become available in the next week or two. You are also limited to their predetermined lengths. I think it is 1.5 meters for PCs and ICs, and 10 feet for speaker cables.

So at the moment, I am doing an A/B test between two single ended IC's in my system from source to Pre. One is my current Nordost Tyr and the other a lesser IC in the Nordost line up...Interesting differences. When I pull the Tyr out I loose a fairly noticable amount of sharp detail, and the other cable seems to round off the edge a little still providing acceptable detail, but overall I lose something. Not sure how to identify it completely, maybe channel seperation, detail, quietness, definately a smidge of emotion. I love the detail I get from the Tyr, but things are becoming clearer to me as I do tests like this. How much I can accompish with cable changes..Interesting learning process.

In the end it is probably just these speakers are limited with my new set up at moderate to high volume levels. Pisses me off, but I have only me to blame on that front. Personally I don't want to lose the detail from the Tyr to get the slight reduction of glare from the lesser IC. One thing is for sure, in doing this I am reminded that Tyr is a very impressive IC. And like you guys have said, contributing to revealing system weaknesses.

Jc51373, I would suggest trying something different than Nordost altogether. I am not sure if it is revealing system weaknesses or could it be that it is just plain wrong in that mix of components?