Bright Sounding Kit

I reckon it’s more likely to be mid forwardness and often hardness. I also think how far ways you sit really matters. Further back and you get less of this effect. Use an omni or semi omni and it’s less of an issue. In other words do t stare down the barrel of a gun at close range and you won’t get shot.

I have to say it’s a great idea for a thread. Not least because so many folk end up buying bright kit then selling it on. A bettter understanding of the issue will undoubtedly help some.

Right, I agree with you about the siting further back and the omni/semi omni thing.

You can walk right behind the speakers in my room and I have had set ups that sounded much better from behind than in front! 

I know some people do use 'too bright' as a euphemism.' As in 'I've bought these bits of kit and I'm not happy, the sound is too bright and I can't listen for long/'

What they mean is that it sounds totally Sh#t but they can't really understand why these quite expensive and possibly well reviewed bits of kit sound like a bag of spanners and they don't really want to believe it themselves, so saying it is 'Too bright' makes out it is just not to their tastes and then everyone's happy including them.

Not to say you can't have a bright system that doesn't sound bad, meaning 'bad' as in when it is a relief to switch it off and sit in silence.

You've hit on one part of my theory. Although it's not really my theory as such. The type of components used do seem to change the balance. But I don't think it is because they change the frequency response.

Naim, Rega, Linn, Exposure (although less so) all make bright sounding amplifiers.

Rega, Naim, Neat, Focal all make bright sounding speakers.

Marantz make probably the brightest sounding CD Player

It is all about getting the right balance though, there is no problem having a bright end, as long as you don't have a bright amplifier and bright speakers, otherwise you get a sound that fatigues very quickly!

Some brands design their stuff to stand out at demo, other brands make real hifi..

Always found brightness to be in the upper mid range, very hard to get the mid-range right, most music lives in the mid-range, get that right and you are a happy camper. Most rave about stuff I hear has a nasty edge to it in the mid-range, a glare it is grainy, metallic, that is what I call bright. All of us over a certain age loose our ability to hear higher frequencies despite the assertions of some 50 year old audiophiles that they can hear past 20kHz

Most of the stuff that is made today, that appeals to the so called audiophile is far to hot in the mid's, all in an attempt to extract the last amount of detail.
I call stuff like that tinkle boxes. To clinical to cold.

let us face facts you are never going to get the same tone out of your kit as a live instrument. Not forgetting every instrument, every player of that particular instrument plays the thing with his own individual tone, not forgetting the recording engineer, the venue, the mixing. Spo what in the hell are Audiophiles looking for, a Phantom, Pie in the Sky, heaven knows what.

Guys seek ultimate detail and resolution, tonal purity, accuracy, un-coloured etc. all a load of hog wash as far as I am concerned. By what do you judge these criteria. Carry on chasing your tail, you will never be happy till you drop all this nonsense and just get some kit that plays music the way you like it.
Ignore others opinions on how it should sound, no body can tell you that because it does not exist, in a finite manner.

People ask questions like what is your favorite Tweeter? My answer is one that does not draw attention to it's self, not listening to the tweeter or anything else to do with the kit for that matter. I am listening to the music. Far to many times have I listened to kit that sounds good, yet there is one important thing missing, some magic, my foot is not tapping. I do not feel like dancing to this.

as for silver well I use Van den Hul exclusively for my cables, I find it very musical, it brings out some extra clarity in the mid range, and settles things down a bit. That is silver cable. Some call it Van den Dul, but hell it ain't the Ice Pick that Audioquest is for example.

Spot on in every way.

Interesting theory.

Here is one example of a speaker that is absolutely ruthless. I always find the speaker to be the main if only contributor to any perceived brightness.

Vivid Audio gets top rave reviews from the audio press, awards, speaker of the year, all that nonsense.

I have listened to them all the "B" the "K" the Giya in all there various sizes and incarnations.

These things rip your ears off, you toe them in a bit pointing at you and you feel like poking your ear drums out with a screwdriver, put them firing straight and they then sound like a screaming Harpy of a wife.

The integration is way off on the "K"'s and the Giya's. On the "B" not so much as it is a two way. The sound dances up and down from driver to driver like a pigeon trapped in your sealing. As bright and sharp as an assassins dagger.

No amp or cable can tame them, we have tried (a good friend has a house full of high end kit, some things that cost the earth). Vivid Designed by Lawrence Dicky ex B&W. Yet the guys buy them, then shortly there after, one bloke 3 months, flog them for lees than half sometimes less than a third. They are pricey buggers.

My opinion a good big two way is the simplest solution, so few get the integration right on a 3 or 4 way, the sound is disconnected so what stands out then;  the brightness, the tops the upper mids,  cause the crossover just is not right.  Get a speaker where the upper mids blend seamlessly with the tweeter, brightness gone.

Stop messing around if the system is bright, it is the speaker, no amp, no cable, nothing is going to tame it, dump the speakers.

Mate has some KEF Reference model 2.2's nice speaker but they are as sharp as hell, play a Soprano on them in full shrieking mode and you feel like shooting her before she multiplies. Tried every amp, cable possible, every source possible, all to no end, even played with the adjustments on the cross over, you can do it on these. Coaxial driver? Go figure.

Just restored a Kenwood KA 7100 from the late 70's sounds great on my Wharefdale Diamonds, but like crap on the Cornscalas. The Line Magnetic 211IA slaughters it totally on the Cornscalas. Yet there is little to no difference between the two amps on the Wharfedales.
I know this has nothing to do with brightness, my point being on the average speaker an amp makes little or no difference. Bright speaker?  No amp etc will ever tame it.
Good high efficiency 2 way speaker or a well thought out time and phase coherent multi driver speaker "musical" like a Vandersteen, then you are talking, they will show up any changes good or bad down the line.

Speakers are designed Hot because this is what the so called modern audiophile likes; bats farting in the belfry, chairs moving, and all the going on's on stage, and other assorted sounds that have nothing at all to do with music.

Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment." - Alan Parsons

I agree that speakers are usually the main culprit.

Funny how everyone differs so much isn't it.

I have always found Rega speaker to be nasty, far far too much sibilance and bright, same with Naim speakers, so thin and bright, no musical quality at all. The only pair of Naim speakers I could actually listen to for more than 5 minutes were the bookshelf N-Sats.

Rega amps seem to differ, some are ok but some are just too thin and non-musical.

Exposure amps have a similar sound to Naim, although a warmer and more musical, compare them to something else though and you will find they are still quite bright, and certainly pair them with say pre-Naim Focal and you will see what I mean.

Marantz CD Players are just nasty, not a lot going for them, although I actually had an older CD65II SE and that wasn't too bad, still bright but not in the same league as some of their later models.

I had the SE. Picked one up from a charity shop for about a fiver. It never struck me as particularly bright. Mind you, I didn't use it much.

I've only ever heard one Naim CD player, the cheapest one (I think). It was not bright. It did not seem to be doing anything special either.