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Audio Note M6 - dark and thick sound ?

Hello All,
I recently bought an Audio Note M6 preamp and have paired it with a Nait 5i (set on unity gain). I hear a rather dark, thick and heavy presentation. The M6 is a very high gain preamp (18db) and when paired with 5i, the sound is too loud even at 7 o clock position on the volume control of M6. The sound at present is too full and overwhelming.

I dont know what exactly is the problem. I do not hear the dark thick sound when I listen to Audio Note gears at their showroom and of course Naim never has that darkness too. Is it a result of electronic mismatch that I am hearing this ? The input impedance of the Naim is supposed to be low, could that be the reason ? I am getting a bit impatient on this :-(
pani
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
According to the manual, the output impedance of the Audio Note M6 is <10 ohms, so impedance mismatch should not be an issue.

It could be your room is over-damped, or it could be that the dealer was using different cables. I had this happen to me before when I was buying speakers. They sounded great at the dealer's showroom, but dark in my room. I checked with the dealer, and he was using silver cables. I switched to silver cables and the sound came back to life.
pani OP
1,215 posts
 
Thanks for the replies.
I could possibly get a pre-owned Graaf GM50 power amp. Line Magnetic and Sac Thailand are also two options I can look for. Any experiences with these ?
jfrech's avatar
jfrech
1,816 posts
 
I was I could help you more. But this sounds like some sort of mis match..especially on the gain...with the volume at 7 oclock you're basically killing all the gain out of source with the preamp's volume control...then after you've cut the source's gain...re-amplifying what's left.

Good luck...let us know what you decide on
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
my Audio Note Meishu integrated amp is a bit thick and dark (very little) but that is offset by the AN E silver speaker which is very open and expansive on the top end.

fwiw

good luck
jond's avatar
jond
5,699 posts
 
Pani I used to have a Graaf GM50 and it needed to be serviced a lot. The tech told me that Graaf amps run extremely hot and so parts wear out pretty quickly. It sounded good and looked great but I ditched it because it was less than reliable. Can't really comment on your AN/Naim issue sorry. Good luck. I will agree though that all tubes, not just AN love silver cables.
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