Interconnect to soften treble ?!?

Hi,

I currently have changed my power amp and finding the treble a little harsh, I like all other aspects to it, so thought i could attenuate the sound a bit by changing the interconnect between the pre and power amp.

Currently use a nordost red dawn. Has anyone got any idea of a cable that will take a bit of the sting out of the treble ?

Help would be most appreciated.

Edward

 

HI Edward.

I'm not sure as I would use i/c for this.

I/cs can (ime) give general improvements in hifi sonics but i'm not sure as I'd use them to soften treble. (although someone maybe able to advise me differently!).

This mabe one for simon with hsi room acoustics knowledge...

Simon??

 

Hi Edward,

What is your current system? What was the amp you had before?

SCIDB

 

If you believe in this sort of thing ........... I'd recommend trying Kimber timbre (PBJ) or dpa black slink. I've found red dawn sometimes a little "up front" for some tastes, having used both interconnects and speaker cable on my older AVI monos.

 

thanks guys ok my sytem currently is:

Naim cd 5
Naim Flatcap 2

Linn Kolektor pre amp
Musical Fidelity FX power amp

Sonus Faber Concertinos

Van de Hull din cable
Nordost red dawn
Nordost blue heaven speaker cable

My old power amp was a audio research vt 60. Partly why i say about changing the red dawn as can remember when i 1st got it, it was like 'ooo thats so much more open up top' but with the vt60 it was never too stingy. so thinking a cable change might toe it in a bit. what you guys think would work well ?

The MF has a lot more drive and beef which i was after alas mid range is nowhere near to the valve vt60 but thats valves for you ! + the whole cutty top end issue.

 

Kimber pjb
Blue jeans lc
VDH the old ones (Hybrid)
M.I.T 330 S1.
All good.I had problems with my old Jbl ti5000.And these cabels worked well.

 

HI EDWARD, try lat ic 300mk 111 signature, superve,.
nando

 

i/c

try ebay for an Audioquest Ruby nice smooth sounding cable IMHO

 

If your speakers have metal spikes - try RDC 1 cones.

 

If the speaker has a cloth grill, try sticking a square of toilet paper on the inside of the fabric in front of the tweeter dome. That might work if the problem is tonal.

You cannot soften the sound of a Naim pre with cables. The source impedance is too low and no practical cable will introduce audible roll-off.

 

That's a good idea to try - we used to do the toilet paper thing with some nearfield studio monitors (Yamahas?), it worked well.
Often a bit of lateral thinking beats the "tech" solution - abit like NASA's "space pen" vs the Russian pencil!

 

Hiya Edward,

Depends upon how much harshness you want to loose, but still keeping the Nordost sound?

I'm thinking as above, try various tweeks other than changing IC.

As well as going by what I have tried:
-Maybe a solid core silver power cable or two, smoothes things I found.
-Blue Heaven between pre and power, just to loose a little of the Red Dawn top end harshness. I by far prefered the BH to the RD due to less harshness, but the RD did seem to let more mid range through.

Could try a Virtual Dynamics cable or two, IME rather good across the whole frequency range.

 

I had concertino's and found them very bright in the treble, so much so i changed them - however - isolda helped, and i later tried one of the vdh carbon ones, lopped loads off the top.

 

That's actually a bit of a myth. NASA didn't commission the space pen and the Russians used the space pen too. A snapped pencil lead on the loose in a spacecraft could cause real problems in zero gravity.

 

if you want to tame the top end keep away from cables that are made from silver plated/coated copper...try single metal and solid core cables ...

copper.. will give a round bouncy sound
silver.. will be smooth and natural incomparison
gold.. will be full bodied and and a little laid back again compared to copper.

 

Why bail out the basement when there is a hole in the roof? I doubt an interconnect will make much difference without anomalously high LCR values that might well impact the sonics elsewhere. I suggest you identify the component that causes the harshness and change it. I would look at the sonus fabers first - I am not familiar with that particular model but I have always found them a little shrill in general.

 

I've not heard IC that make much difference to be honest , I've heard the most difference with speaker cable.

in the past, to tame a pair of monitor audio GR20s excessive highs I used Speltz Anti-cables solid core speaker cable.
With certain gear (didn't work with the Quad speakers I had) they seem to roll off frequencies over about 10khz leaving you with a nice warm sound. Quite odd really.

You may find their ICs do the same , though I haven't tried them myself.

 

Blue heaven is very open, but can tend towards bright. I would try swapping it out for some Mogemi - bonus being that your blue heaven will sell for a lot more than the Mogemi will cost you.

I used to use Nordost speaker cable and interconnects. Still have blue heaven for the CDP but mogemi speaker cable and virtual dynamics i/c for the TT.

 

I think the problem is in the system not the cable, the cable is just revealing what is there already.
Who chose your system? Naim, Linn and MF? I thought I was weird.

One or two of the boxes must be causing this, I'd guess the Naim ones, but a visit to a dealer with your system might be in order?

i'd really like to know how you ended up with this combination.

PS if you sell the Red Dawn please let me know, I use one between my Linto and Prima Luna Prologue 2 and I love it