Hello, I recently purchased a pair of GoldenEar Triton II speakers paired with a Primaluna Dialaogue One integrated tube amp, with Squeezebox Touch as source (CD-lossless files). Cables and interconnects are cheap Monster variety, and power conditioner is Furman PST-8D. The system sounds great with regard to bass and midrange - vocals are amazingly smooth and realistic, and classical sounds so good that I've rediscovered it as a genre. Soundstaging and ambiance are excellent. However, the very high treble is bright, edgy, and fatigueing when listening to rock music. Specifically, cymbals are over-pronounced and harsh. At the dealer, I did hear this behavior from the Triton II's, but it was not nearly as pronounced, maybe because of the different source components, external DAC, cables, or the room itself. Or, is there significant variation in how one pair of Triton II's sound versus another? Could mine have more pronounced high treble than others?

Considering the above issue, how should I allocate my $2k budget to source and cables? Here's what I was thinking of auditioning with the Triton II's. Thoughts on these or other models, or how I should proportion my budget?

DACs: Musical Fidelity V-DAC II; Music Hall DAC25.3; Peachtree DACit; Moon 100D;
Speaker Cables: Kimber Kable 8TC; Others?
Analog Interconnects: Kimber Kable Hero; Cardas Microtwin
Digital Coax: StraightWire Infolink Digital; Black Cat Veloce

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Joel

Sounds like there's something wrong somewhere, I have never heard Tritons sound overly bright - unless maybe when the bass section was turned down too far. The HVFR Tweeter is very smooth, but it does show off the edginess of the many bright, compressed rock recordings of today. Always evaluate with a high quality recording - if that sounds good it is pretty safe to say the recording is the issue. And don't do any critical evaluations until the speaker has had 50 or more hours of real playing time.

Other than that, I would suggest seeking the advice of your local dealer, try to substitute other components (and certainly multiple sources) one at a time to see what is the cause of the brightness you hear. Also, perhaps some other forum member may want to chime in here as to what they suspect might be the cause, from your list of components. I see nothing - all good stuff.

Thanks for the response. You might be right with the recordings, although it's hard to find "high quality" modern rock recordings out there. (Try finding All American Rejects or Weezer in 24/96!) I'll look into it though.

Regarding the equipment list at the end of my post, that was just possible purchases in the future. I currently am using a SB Touch as source, with no DAC and basic Monster cables. What I'm wondering is if that is the problem, and if so, where should I put the budget?

Thanks again.

Joel

Yes, I have heard the SB products with lossless files (AIF and WAV) as an analog source and it sounds fine ... but better when used as digital out into a high quality DAC. Overly bright is not something I would typically associate with average cables either.

By other sources I meant try a good CD player's analog output into your integrated and see how it sounds - it could tell you a lot about your current SB source. By good recording I meant one of the many reference recordings we all use to evaluate high quality audio equipment - which probably does not include a recording of your favorite rock band. Also, do you have the speakers positioned fairly wide and toed in toward the center?

Regarding the other product ideas, I'll leave that to forum members.

How many hours have you put on your Triton's. Mine were "bright" in that they had a hard edge to them in the treble. It took 3 or 4 hundred hours and, viola, they became incredibly smooth....had me worried for a while, but am pleased as punch now.

For high quality rock recordings I stay away from ALL remasters; never heard one that doesn't sound bright. Try to get an original cd release of Yes's Fragile album. Can be found used on Amazon for just a few bucks.

Quite a few things could be causing this, unfortunately. If you're looking for well recorded modern rock, try Tool. Their stuff sounds amazing.

For me, I've never experienced harsh treble from the Tritons, even before I had my acoustical treatments. I have pretty humble gear and about 150 hours on the speakers: Macbook Pro iTunes + Pure Music, NAD 356BEE integrated with their MDC DAC module, random internet interconnects. Top to bottom the system sounds amazing to me. Here's a shot of my room:

campl.us/hp4P

For troubleshooting, here's where I would start:

1. How is the room? Many hard surfaces? Windows? If you have a dedicated room some high quality acoustical treatments will totally blow your mind. I like these guys: www.gikacoustics.com/ You can get a great kit for ~1k that will smooth out response across the entire audio spectrum.

If you don't want to treat the entire room you could at least get a couple 244s for the first reflection points. They should help.

This one is unfortunately difficult to test without dropping some $$. Try covering hard surfaces that could reflect sound (walls, windows, leather sofas) to see if you hear an improvement.

2. Something in the audio chain. Mod's suggestions pretty much cover this. DAC is crucially important - a good candidate for your upgrade money. If you have a Mac Channel D's Pure Music plugin with iTunes running into a nice DAC is very good. You may also try running analog directly out of the Mac if you don't have a CD player to debug.

3. Don't forget your dealer! You just dropped some serious change on an expensive pair of speakers. I'd hope they would be willing to help you out with a house call.