How do I smooth out violins?

The OP states listening to a ton of orchestral music. I find it hard to believe all of these recordings are bad.

Not everybody has bad power. If you are adding a power line conditioner to good power, what do you get? I am fortunate to live in an area with good power and every line conditioner I have tried only caused negative affects. Line conditioners and room treatment have become automatic responses to everyone with a problem. It is my experience that if your system does not sound right it's because it was not assembled properly.

01-04-13: Rrog
The OP states listening to a ton of orchestral music. I find it hard to believe all of these recordings are bad.

Ron, note that he used the word "often." That would seem to imply that they don't all sound bad. Which was what led me to suspect that the recordings that do sound bad may sound that way primarily as a result of excessive multi-miking and processing, which is very common in the case of classical orchestral recordings.

Regards,
-- Al

When I first read the original post it sounded to me like a general, overall system, type of complaint. Not just a few, specific recordings.

I know I'll probably regret saying this, but the following post from Rok2id does make a lot of sense and is definitely something to consider.

"01-04-13: Rok2id
After reading your post and the responses, I listened to several CDs to see if I could hear anything similiar.

Beethoven Sym #9 1st movement
Bohm and the vienna Phil

Same piece but Karajan and the berliners SACD.

Julia Fischer Bach concertos with ASMF

The Fischer disc was a little fast, but the strings were easy on the ears. no complaints. Of course she was great.
The Bohm was GREAT. Very smooth. No irritation at all.
The Karajan sounded sort of harsh and strident.
Both of the Beethovens were recorded by DG.
The Bach by DECCA.

A lot of CDs are like this with big orchestras. I own a lot of them. Have not listened to them in years, once a I got a better performance and recording. Just a wall of sound that sort of grates on the ears.

I would advise you, as someone said, get a KNOWN well recorded violin heavy piece and listen. If you find it grating on your ears, then maybe you do have a gear peoblem. But remember, if your system will play at least ONE CD with mass violins to your satisfaction, then it will play ALL properly recorded CD the same way. If you modify your system to make BAD cds sound better, what will it make the GOOD cds sound like. Don't say, ' MO Better' :) Beethoven's 5&7 by Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna is considered one of the best classical recordings. Try it.
The Philadelphia Orch with Ormandy was know for it's violin section. But that was on LP. I can't believe I just said that. :) Good Luck."

Also, I really like Frogman's post overall. However, I'm not completely sold on the problem being digital. It could be, but I still think the preamp is the best place to start.

Given how varied the responses are. I think the OP should consider contacting The Cable Company. They have a huge lending library of cables, accessories and components that they send out so you can do an in home demo. I've used them many times and find them to be a great resource.

Hi Al, Good point. I also noticed he is comparing his system to live music, so there is a chance it could be over processed recordings.

Gentleman,

First of all, many thanks for such informative (and spirited) responses, and I failed to mention that I do have all of my components plugged into an APC S-15 power conditioner/sine wave generator/battery backup. I think that I will check out some tubes in the preamp and the Cardas cables to start with, spend some time with those, and listen. The CD player is fairly new (well-reviewed recently), and it is actually a CD5004 (not the CD3000,my goof), so I think it will stay at least for a while until I can eliminate other components. Those with the 1/2Es seem to agree that they are not at fault.