Adding Tone Controls?

Your system description covers two different configurations, and appears not to have been updated in many years. Are you presently using biwired Goertz MI-2 speaker cables, as shown in one of the descriptions? And if so, are you using them without a Zobel network?

If so, between the ultra-high 950 pf/foot capacitance of those cables, which as seen by the amplifier would be doubled in the biwired configuration, and the very low impedances and highly capacitive phase angles which I presume your M-L Odyssey speakers have at high frequencies, you would be subjecting the amplifier to brutally capacitive load conditions at high frequencies. While normally I would be among the last to suggest that the symptoms you are describing be addressed by focusing on cables, if the answers to my questions above are "yes" it seems very conceivable to me that the effects of all that capacitance on the amplifier could be a significant contributor to the problem, exaggerating the consequences of excess high frequency energy when it is present in the recordings.

As far as digital EQ is concerned, you may also want to consider the DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core, at around $1100, which has been getting a lot of good press. (I have no experience with it). Among many other functions, as described in Kal Rubinson's review (scroll down to the middle of the page) it "includes a 16-band, user-configurable parametric equalizer with a center frequency range from 20Hz to 24kHz, each band assignable to the right, left, or both channels."

Based on reviews and comments I have seen its transparency is quite good, but if you go that route I would, as suggested by some of the others above, still configure the system so that it could readily be switched completely out of the signal path when desired.

Regards,
-- Al

Thanks for all the responses.

I definitely agree that an equalizer of some sort is probably needed. I like the idea of being able to switch this tone modification out of the loop when playing decently recorded material. The two methods suggested (either via the tape loop or as a separate path from the CD transport) both have merit. The Behringer sounds like a bargain.

Relative to Al's comments - yes, my system still includes the Goertz cables, and I am using the Zobels. You bring up good points relative to the capacitance issue. I had thought that the Pass X250 could handle the load without too much problem, but it's worth further investigation. The counterindication, however, is that the system sounds fabulous with good recordings.

Free advice: Try toe in/out first. Every mm makes a huge difference if you are listening in the sweet spot.

Guess that means the folks at Mcintosh,Accuphase and AVM are a bunch of hacks to include those controls.