Bright OR Warm???

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which manufacturers product you generally describe as warm and which as bright?

nad

arcam

rotel

monitor audio

marantz

cyrus

creek

musical fidelity

Cambridge audio

b&w

mordaunt short

ect ect
 

fr0g

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[quote user="matt444_2000"]
which manufacturers product you generally describe as warm and which as bright?

nad

arcam

rotel

monitor audio

marantz

cyrus

creek

musical fidelity

b&w

mordaunt short

ect ect
[/quote]
this should be on a facebook quiz...
From my experience... Nad - warm / Arcam - neutral / Rotel - Neutra-Warm / MA - bright / marantz - bright / Cyrus dunno / MF - dunno / B&W - warm / MS - bright / creek - dunno
 

John Duncan

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Impossible to generalise but the bits of equipment I've known from these manuf's are:

nad - warm

arcam - warm and fuzzy

rotel - bright to neutral

monitor audio - bright

marantz - depends - bright at budget level, warming up nicely as you spend more

cyrus - bright

creek - oh so terribly neutral

musical fidelity - lovely, fluid, mellifluous, snoggable

b&w - warm

mordaunt short - dunno

primare - warm, great knobs
 
A

Anonymous

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nad - warm, gutsy

arcam - neutral , err

rotel - pass

monitor audio - bright ++

marantz - bright +

cyrus - bright +

creek -pass

Musical Fidelity - neutral

B+W - warm

mordaunt short - pass

Can we have the marks soon pls?
 

crusaderlord

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When i started looking at changing my Hi-FI from an 8 year old NAD budget series i had no concept of what warm or bright actually meant. I actually thought warm meant 'not detailed' or maybe even 'unclear' and so i went looking for a bright amp / cd combination............Having had the opportunity to listen over the last few months i found i was completely misguided and warm to me now still means clear and detailed only smoother and more rounded or balanced .......... Listening to the music i like (electronic synth / female vocals / a little jazz) i soon found i actually preferred a warm or neutral presentation.............From the ones i had a demo for i thought the following....................Bright = Cambridge Audio, Marantz (budget end) ................. Bright / Neutral = Roksan Kandy ................ Neutral / Warm = Rotel, Arcam ................. Warm & Punchy = NAD ............. There is so much choice though i had in the end to make a decision and did so on a price / quality / warmth basis. I even changed cable from a bright Silver Anniversary XT to a warmer Chord Silverscreen which i found to be a much better cable. Saying this i do have some fast and detailed speakers in the Epos M5's which i guess helps the overall balance.
 

gpi

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I find all silver boxes quite bright and all components warm after a few minutes from switching them on.
emotion-1.gif


What, have I not got the gist of this?
emotion-42.gif
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Nobody has rated Cambridge Audio... How is it? Is it a good choice for my MA RS8? I find the 840Av2 + 840C very attractive combination of price / features. My other option is Primare i21 + Primare CD21. What you'd choose?

Somebody rated Primare as
warm, which I founded to have crystal clear sound. That makes me think
I maybe don't know what warm means. I understand warm as 'not' bright,
but since there are some you rate 'neutral'...

All the inexperienced ones (as me), may think the neutral ones are the right choice... But I've also read 'Creek - ooh so terribly neutral'. Which I understand that being neutral is not a good thing ...
emotion-3.gif


So, as I've spotted in another post, I can't understand 90% of the adjectives related to sound in terms of colours, temperatures... used in forums and mags.

Crusadelord opinion is the kind of post that really helps the inexperienced ones as me.
emotion-2.gif
 

John Duncan

Well-known member
I have a Creek and I called it neutral, but meant it in a good way. I bought it because I thought what I wanted was an uncoloured presentation of music - absolute high fidelity. The Creek does that for me, but I'm starting to find I miss a bit of that colour (some might call it distortion, or lack of faithful reproduction) which makes 'hifi' into 'music'.

So in other words whilst it is the closest to faithful reproduction I could find (that I could afford), I'm starting to find it a bit boring. The Primare I've bought to replace it might be marginally less faithful because it retains the top end sparkle, as you say, but adds a bit of warmth in the midrange (think the 'voices' bit) and colour - not only to voices but strings and guitars - that I think I was missing, and think I'm more happy (though less faithful, hifi-wise) as a result.

And the moral of this simple tale is - it's all a subjective, personal thing. Hear something, like it, buy it. Don't worry about warm or bright or neutral or bassy or five stars or three stars.

jd
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="JohnDuncan"]I have a Creek and I called it neutral, but meant it in a good way. I bought it because I thought what I wanted was an uncoloured presentation of music - absolute high fidelity. The Creek does that for me, but I'm starting to find I miss a bit of that colour (some might call it distortion, or lack of faithful reproduction) which makes 'hifi' into 'music'.

So in other words whilst it is the closest to faithful reproduction I could find (that I could afford), I'm starting to find it a bit boring. The Primare I've bought to replace it might be marginally less faithful because it retains the top end sparkle, as you say, but adds a bit of warmth in the midrange (think the 'voices' bit) and colour - not only to voices but strings and guitars - that I think I was missing, and think I'm more happy (though less faithful, hifi-wise) as a result.

And the moral of this simple tale is - it's all a subjective, personal thing. Hear something, like it, buy it. Don't worry about warm or bright or neutral or bassy or five stars or three stars.

jd

[/quote]

Thanks a lot. That's been very helpful.

Which Primare did you get? I21 or i30? If i30, do you agree people saying that this model excells from volume level of 50, and doesn't perform its best at low level? (that's what I've read)
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Yeah, the i21 breaks your ears with crystal clear and powerful sound from 35 up to 70 volume level...

What I was talking about, is I've found several opinions in forums/reviews saying that the i21 sounds a lot louder at the same volume rate than the i30.

I'd maybe follow your choice and bet for the Primare i21 / CD21 combo.

Anyway, I'll try to check if that volume issue is really true (because I'd get i30 if the extra expense is really worth it).
 

John Duncan

Well-known member
Well the 30 is the amp I covet, but the new 'i' models are too deep for the shelves where my kit sits so am stuck with the D20 and A20 - when I listened to the i30 I wasn't aware of volume numbers, but it wasn't loud, in a small room, and was amazing. I don't think you'd have an issue.
 
[quote user="JohnDuncan"]I have a Creek and I called it neutral, but meant it in a good way. I bought it because I thought what I wanted was an uncoloured presentation of music - absolute high fidelity. The Creek does that for me, but I'm starting to find I miss a bit of that colour (some might call it distortion, or lack of faithful reproduction) which makes 'hifi' into 'music'.

So in other words whilst it is the closest to faithful reproduction I could find (that I could afford), I'm starting to find it a bit boring. The Primare I've bought to replace it might be marginally less faithful because it retains the top end sparkle, as you say, but adds a bit of warmth in the midrange (think the 'voices' bit) and colour - not only to voices but strings and guitars - that I think I was missing, and think I'm more happy (though less faithful, hifi-wise) as a result.

And the moral of this simple tale is - it's all a subjective, personal thing. Hear something, like it, buy it. Don't worry about warm or bright or neutral or bassy or five stars or three stars.

jd[/quote]

Totally agree with JD's summary. Also consider the room - the size, whether u have carpet or hard floor, wallpaper, furnishings etc. All of the above will determine whether it will be good sounding or ropey. . . .
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="smo"]Which Primare did you get? I21 or i30? If i30, do you agree people saying that this model excells from volume level of 50, and doesn't perform its best at low level? (that's what I've read)[/quote]

Hmmm interesting I had just the i21 initially before adding the A30.2 power amp to it. Now I find ( other than clearer, more dynamic sound, better control etc) that I can use far more of the volume range. With the i21 on its own it would get distortion kicking in as low as vol 20 whereas now the volume step ups are that much finer so it is quieter for each step up in volume but i can now go up to 45 + with absolute clarity of sound and no distortion. I don't know the technical explanation but i'd guess it's a combination of having a power supply(a30.2) seperate from the pre-amp (i21) and increased power rating (120W vs 75W/channel).
 
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Anonymous

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[quote user="matengawhat"]What would people say Roksan kit was? I'd say neutral but edging towards warm[/quote]

I heard a Roksan pairing 3weeks ago and though i was focusing on speakers i'd agree with you. Neutral to slighly warm.
 

timwileman

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[quote user="matengawhat"]What would people say Roksan kit was? I'd say neutral but edging towards warm[/quote] i would say neutral edging towards bright, i have a kandy cdp hooked up to an arcam a70 (neutral/warm) amp with epos m5i speakers and it sounds wonderful, mainly a neutral sound with a touch of warmth
 

matengawhat

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[quote user="timwileman"][quote user="matengawhat"]What would people say Roksan kit was? I'd say neutral but edging towards warm[/quote] i would say neutral edging towards bright, i have a kandy cdp hooked up to an arcam a70 (neutral/warm) amp with epos m5i speakers and it sounds wonderful, mainly a neutral sound with a touch of warmth[/quote]

thats interesting because i had a Kandy CDP and Kandy Amp/power Amp and RS8s was having a little bit of a problem with the top end being a little bright which i put down to some new Chord Chameleon cables that i had bought everything adding up to slightly bright but have just replaced my CDP with a MF Xray/DAC V8 and everythings changed and i have the best sound i have ever had.
 

crusaderlord

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It is certainly about balancing the kit that way you like it to sound and as JohnDuncan says that may even change over time as well - i am no real expert but i did do some research on separates over the last few months to put together something i liked the sound of. I did make mistakes though ................. I tried 2 current Cambridge Audio amplifiers (340 & 540) at home and found them both way too bright even to the point of being sharp sounding at times and their headphone socket sounded tinny............ I suggest if you pair up bright amplifiers + bright cd player + bright speakers + cable then you ask for an unbalanced sound ............ Eventually a good test i found was listening to female vocals - if a track was sounding great but then hinted at being shrill or sharp when they really pushed their vocals (Duffy for instance is a good test case) and made me think briefly of a volume change mid track then i put this down to a touch of over brightness or sharpness in the system............Even when i set up my current system, the Arcam's i found that by using a Chord Silverscreen cable instead of Silver Anniversary XT it really smoothed over the very brightest edge only and brought out a tad more bassline thus balancing the system out........... There isnt a right or wrong - some ears prefer more brightness and it is a bit of trial and error too if you can afford it ........... However I dont feel i have traded any clarity at all by adding warmth, just made the overall listening across different music styles a better experience eg not having to think that the settings or volumes keep needing a tweak when the track or vocalist extends themselves............. I hope this helps explain my perspective anyway............. I thought Roksan Kandy was excellent and would have called it mainly neutral leaning towards bright and had i not found a bargain price Arcam sale i would have considered it for either the amp or the cd. Combining both a Roksan amp and cd with some fast Epos M5's may have been too much again.......... It is not easy to decribe in words hence magazines have a tough job - but i would like them to do more articles on pairing different combinations of separates and explaining the differences.
 

timwileman

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not sure i know what you mean, lean as in not fat? are you meaning that the roksan kit ''removes'' notes or some of the low end? i didnt find that the bottom was missing more that the top was more ....well available is the best word i could use, but when i heard it with the arcam amp it seemed a neutral ie equal sound........also the quick but neutral eops suited the system quite well to my ears........but as they say each to their own.
 
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Anonymous

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Hi this is my first thread, how do you guys rate the sound for Naim? I had heard a pre-power setup driving a pair Harbeth. Find it pretty smooth sounding.
 
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Anonymous

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depends I think Saturday will be a bit dull but Sunday is indeed going to be bright and warm
 

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