taming harshness

[nandac]

for a while now i have been battling harshness on my sonus faber/rotel combo.

after going past the hurdles of a more powerful stepdown, better interconnect, better speaker wire, proper usage of positive/negative connections in the biwire setup - the sound improved gradually, significantly.

marvin gaye's 'whats goin on', nick drake's 'eight leaves left', fleetwood mac's 'rumours' - were all magical.

but still playing rock (the slightly harder variety) would invariably produce a harshness i couldn't stand - especially with percussion.

i had kept in mind the suggestion by chord company about the usage of the speaker wire instead of the biwire links provided by sonus faber (the latter btw had aged a bit).

then i bought some mx spade connectors. mx's spade connectors seems qualitatively better than their bananas. for Rs 130 it is a solid piece of gold plated metal. so i cut some small strips of the chord silverscreen speaker wire and used them with spades to make some biwire links.

hooking them up, the improvement is significant.

i played led zep's physical grafitti and - ooh mama! - the harshness is totally gone and there is even greater detail.

then i played my standard tracks for testing audio, and yea - it is great now.

totally pleased.

but one caveat : the mx spades are quite large - significantly than some monster ones i have. so if you want to give them a try, make sure they can fit your speaker connector posts.

 

[venkatcr]

I am surprised the Rotel/Sonus Faber combination sounded harsh. In any case, great job is taming things. Congratulations!

Cheers

 

[iaudio]

Nandac, Where did you purchase the mx spades from?

 

[marsilians]

Not sure which model you have but how are you room treatments and also the placement - both toe-in and also how far apart they are and from the walls. SF are notorious for that and you need to play around a bit. Once you get it, they will definitely sound heavenly.

Bi-wiring also helps when there is a lot of dynamics in the source and you have a good amp which you seem to from your post.

 

[nandac]

Nandac, Where did you purchase the mx spades from?

sanson electroniks on sp road, bangalore.

ph : 22240912/22898079

 

[nandac]

Not sure which model you have but how are you room treatments and also the placement - both toe-in and also how far apart they are and from the walls. SF are notorious for that and you need to play around a bit.

sonus faber concertos - the first in the series. i also have a pair of concertinos.

yea i know that sf are very particular about placement, but in my house there is not too much scope for that. for example i can only place them a feet away from the wall - no way i can change that.

 

[alpha1]

You know you could've just turned down the 3.5khz-4kHz band on your EQ by 2-4dB, and get rid of the harshness!

 

[koushik]

^^ First of all, it is bad bad idea to equalise a straight system.
And then, it is not about reducing the dB of mid frequencies but to make them smooth. We don't want to compromise on the detailing, do we?

 

[alpha1]

But if we find it harsh, it does mean that its not a straight system (due to whichever component like amp, source, speakers etc).

A high quality EQ should not cause a perceivable deterioration in the signal (when flat) - even the mastering engineers use it.

 

[utkarsh]

then i bought some mx spade connectors. mx's spade connectors seems qualitatively better than their bananas. for Rs 130 it is a solid piece of gold plated metal. so i cut some small strips of the chord silverscreen speaker wire and used them with spades to make some biwire links.

hooking them up, the improvement is significant.

i played led zep's physical grafitti and - ooh mama! - the harshness is totally gone and there is even greater detail.

then i played my standard tracks for testing audio, and yea - it is great now.

totally pleased.

but one caveat : the mx spades are quite large - significantly than some monster ones i have. so if you want to give them a try, make sure they can fit your speaker connector posts.

Im little bit confused
Have done Bi Wiring to connect your speakers. If yes then then will be no links.
OR
You have replaced links with Chord Cable but then again why MX spades are required. Please post some pictures.
I have replaced my speakers links with Cable.

 

[Deleted member 17547]

I did the same as Utkarsh did but I could not see any improvement in sound.. Sound was still the same.. (

 

[nandac]

Im little bit confused
Have done Bi Wiring to connect your speakers. If yes then then will be no links.
OR
You have replaced links with Chord Cable but then again why MX spades are required. Please post some pictures.
I have replaced my speakers links with Cable.

you have used bare wire for links. i have terminated them with spades. that's all.

 

[nandac]

in hindsight, i think the old links which came with the speakers had considerable oxidization on them - due to ageing. it was probably that which caused the harshness i think.

 

[nandac]

btw another related question here :

when using barewire to connect to speakers, do they over a period of time due to usage gather oxidization - because i can see the wire ends have grown darker. or is that the case even if they are used with bananas/spades etc?

if so do wires need to be clipped periodically? or is there anyway to remove oxidization?

and do bananas, spades etc gather oxidization as well?

 

[alpha1]

The copper oxidation layer is only few microns thick and will not cause any change to what you hear.

Any metal will get oxidized over time, when exposed to atmosphere.
The only way to avoid this is to use Gold or Platinum.
(which are not as good conductor of electricity as copper)