Do I need new speakers? Please help...

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Oh dear.

Kit is -

Sony CDD X3000ES > Cyrus 8xpd QX > Quad 22L2. CD is connected optically and I'm using QED silver speaker cables bi-wired to the Quads.

I have had the amp for a couple of weeks and love the detail it is pulling from my CDs. I can hear everything. However, I am noticing that the mid-range is quite 'loud'. It's almost like someone has got a graphic equaliser and pushed the middle ones up by a third. It can sound a bit harsh. The treble is sublime, detailed and sprakly. I have been asking questions on the forums about CD recording quality but I am not so sure this is what it is down to. If I play something like Craig Armstrong it sounds incredible. If I play Snow Patrol the mid range is almost too harsh. Any ideas what it could be? Speaker cables perhaps? Or am I going to have to look at something like new speakers - Spendor A5s perhaps. How much difference is there between the Spendr A5s and the Quadd 22L2s? Is there a big difference? Do vocals sounds smoother? Am I looking in the wrong area? This is soooo frustrating.

Any help offered much appreciated - I am going bonkers over this, I thought the amp was a great buy when I auditioned it but this is only materialising after living with it for a couple of weeks.
 
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Anonymous

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I'm re-reading old reviews and see that the Quads are supposed to have a lovely natural mid-range. I have read more than 1 review that says they sound fantastic with guitars and vocals! Why not mine? Can my cables really make such a huge difference? Could speaker cable really change the sound so much? Any recommendations on suggested cables gratefully received, cheaper than speakers, and I might be able to borrow some...
 
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Anonymous

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The great thing about HiFi is that we can READ something that makes us think our 'sound' isn't optimal.

Try changing the position of your speakers by toeing them in or out a little, or perhaps their height. Maybe you could remove the biwiring.

At the end of the day your ears will be the right judge, after all we should be listening to the music, not the gear reproducing it.
 

007L2Thrill

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When I had some QED sliver speaker cable on my mission's a long time ago I remember them being a bit harsh, I swapped them out with some IXOS gamma 6006 speaker cable and the harshness was gone.

So the speaker cable was my problem, so may be yours, the ixos you can get for around £3 a metre now a days and cheap enough to get a couple of metres to try and see if it fixes the problem.
 
groberton said:
Oh dear.

Kit is -

Sony CDD X3000ES > Cyrus 8xpd QX > Quad 22L2. CD is connected optically and I'm using QED silver speaker cables bi-wired to the Quads.

I have had the amp for a couple of weeks and love the detail it is pulling from my CDs. I can hear everything. However, I am noticing that the mid-range is quite 'loud'. It's almost like someone has got a graphic equaliser and pushed the middle ones up by a third. It can sound a bit harsh. The treble is sublime, detailed and sprakly. I have been asking questions on the forums about CD recording quality but I am not so sure this is what it is down to. If I play something like Craig Armstrong it sounds incredible. If I play Snow Patrol the mid range is almost too harsh. Any ideas what it could be? Speaker cables perhaps? Or am I going to have to look at something like new speakers - Spendor A5s perhaps. How much difference is there between the Spendr A5s and the Quadd 22L2s? Is there a big difference? Do vocals sounds smoother? Am I looking in the wrong area? This is soooo frustrating.

Any help offered much appreciated - I am going bonkers over this, I thought the amp was a great buy when I auditioned it but this is only materialising after living with it for a couple of weeks.

TBH your system isn't really geared for pure midrange repro: Cyrus has lovely dynamics and detail; Quads are fairly similar in that respect; QED cables, although not heard, from all reviews can lack depth, but do excel in clarity and detail. As for your Sony CDP I've no idea. They used to make really good sounding players - a friend used to have one but couldn't tell you the model number - but how they stack up against other [modern] top brands, really don't know.
 
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Anonymous

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I had some Quad 12L2s for some months but sold as I found them far too fatiguing. Brilliant treble as you say, but further down the audio spectrum tended towards the harsh with far too many CDs. Not heard clarity like it before, but couldn't listen for more than ten minutes in the end. I borrowed another amp to see if it would help, but only with a friend's uber-expensive valve jobby did they start to sound OK. Given what I know of Cyrus I'd say your amp would only accentuate the speaker's traits. I'm not saying the Quads are bad speakers, by the way, in fact they did some things better, like instrument separation, than most speakers I've heard since. In the end, though, if you find yourself not being able to enjoy them, then maybe a speaker change is the best solution.

Edit: If you're hearing what I heard, don't waste your money on cables, they won't help at all. Cables are not tone controls nor graphic equalizers. as I've discovered to my cost. I don't think toeing in will help either, since I think it's the characteristics of the speakers that are being highlighted by the amp causing are the problem.

You could, of course, change the amp, but something tells me getting the Spendors or similar would be a better solution.
 
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Anonymous

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Hi Rick

I previously had a Pioneer VSX2011D home cinema amp. So this is worlds apart. Movies sounded incredible but I wanted something better musically.
 
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Anonymous

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Anyone else got any ideas or agree/disagree with what's been said?
 

TheHomeCinemaCentre

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From what you have described there are a few things you could do before spening money on new speakers. My first thought would be to borrow some different speaker cable and interconnects from your dealer. Despite what has been said previously the cable is like a filter and will adjust the sound. Better or worse is not the arguement - it is what is good or bad to you in your system. This may change the sound for the better.

Moving your speakers is a good option but normally for problems with bass or clarity. Worth spending 20 minutes or so experimenting.

Finally good as the 22l's are you will see a huge step up to the Spendor's. Your whole hi-fi will change and they match very well with the Cyrus. Perhaps your Spendor dealer can lend you the cables and then the speakers. Alternatively they may be able to visit you and hear your system to identify the issue.
 
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Anonymous

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TheHomeCinemaCentre said:
From what you have described there are a few things you could do before spening money on new speakers. My first thought would be to borrow some different speaker cable and interconnects from your dealer. Despite what has been said previously the cable is like a filter and will adjust the sound. Better or worse is not the arguement - it is what is good or bad to you in your system. This may change the sound for the better.
I have to disagree strongly with this. Cables do not act as filters unless they are specifically designed to do so, and only a handful of highly expensive ones are, to my knowledge anyway. The purpose of a cable is to be transparent, and that's it.
 

bluebrazil

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whilst i agree that a lot of expensive speaker cable marketing is over-hyped i can post you my experiences. i moved from qed silver to a cheapo (tho decent) second hand solid core copper cable and the differences were very noticable, (this change was ideal for me, maybe not you). for the sake of a few quid i would not hesitate to change the silver plated stuff to a mutistrand copper or even solid core, second hand off ebay or pro audio stuff will suffice and will at least tell you if new speakers are needed.
 
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Anonymous

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I also agree with what has been said about the QED cable. I had that "brash" sound for years and even changed amplifier before considering that it might be the speaker cable. If you can, borrow some ordinary copper speaker cable. It might help, but it could just be down to bad pairing of amp / speakers.
 

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