Brightness Abounds... Help

Not necessarily, but a tube amp might do the trick.. Did you run Audyssey? That has also been known to cure various ills related to frequency response without the additional amp cost.

I know this is a canned response, but how is your room for sound absorption and reflection?? Room treatments tend to help tame brightness. Equipment synergy can be an issue no doubt. The Focal's can be known as revealing speakers.

Maybe, maybe not; as both the preamp and amp circuitry have an effect on output SQ. Try expanding your search to non Asian suppliers such as NAD and Cambridge Audio.

Receivers, are neither bright nor Dull or anything else. Calibration is what can color your sound. Yamaha offers a natural calibration setting that definitely reduces the brightness with my setup. If that is not enough then you can manually adjust the calibration at individual frequencies with the newer Yamaha receivers.

Why exactly does not passing BTB rule Yamaha out? What source do you have that has BTB and needs to pass it?

Receivers have their own sq. Sound staging difference and coloration of the sound is present in every receiver, pre-amp, processor, and amp.

As you go up the price point the coloration in the sound is supposed to be reduced - better circuitry = less coloration. Whether this is so depends on two factors - the right and left ears of the listener.

The calibration settings present on any receiver are designed to color the sound, pure and simple.

Yamaha may not be the best choice here if your speakers are bright.

Maybe an H/K..... Hard to say. Doesn't the Onkyo have full EQ on each channel? It does seem if so, that it could fixed easily.

Yamaha AVR's are definately at the "brighter" end of the spectrum,
(But that's my personal preference)

If you want a warmer sound , try Harmon Kardon or Denon.
known to be on the warm side, but still a good match to a bright speaker.

I'd say Marantz or HK would be warmer than Yamy or Onkyo.

What kind of budget do you have?

I echo the sentiments that suggest acoustical room treatments first.
I've had Yamaha, Denon, HK, NAD, and Integra here and the differences between them were slight in comparison to what room treatments can do for the overall sound - as well as taming brightness.

The brightness is the result of the Al/Mg tweeter and its interaction in your listening environment. Many metal tweeters are a roll of the dice in this regard. Onkyo as a brand is not known to be bright but certainly a brand like HK would be a bit warmer.

I agree with the comments about the calibration both negative and positive. Obviously sound will be colored to an extent if it is EQ'd to a specific room. But this is far preferable than not EQ-ing in a bright room. I highly doubt your 875 amping is contributing to the problem. Much more likely is the preamping/calibration settings already in play. So another amp, even a very warm amp is not necessarily going to help. It may take some of the edge off but who knows?

More likely further calibration trials are in order. And some room softening with wall hangings and drapes if not already present ... if wood flooring then an area rug as well.

Bright sounding receiver! My H/K 7300 was bright. When I moved to my Onkyo 885 the issue went away. And that was before running Audyssey.

I find it interesting that you would consider changing the receiver before the speakers or addressing room acoustics. Either would have 100x more effect than changing the amplifier.

Stop taking drugs B&W ...The H/K 7300 bright and the Onkyo warmer ..Paleeeese

+1

Yamaha, Onkyo = bright
HK, NAD = warm
Siver cables = bright
Copper cables = nuetral

For a complete listing of these and other internet audio myths, please stay tuned.

Having gone through several "bright" (harsh, irritating) amps and preamps, and being especially sensitive to that sound, I am convinced that electronics can definitely be the problem. Some speakers with metal tweeters can indeed exacerbate the problem, and so can a highly reflective room, but my speakers use titanium dome tweeters and I have never found them to be in any way bright or harsh on their own when connected to good (non-bright) electronics in my non-acoustically treated room. That said I am all for good acoustical/room treatment if you can do it without making it look like a recording studio. I have found H/K receivers to be less offensive in regard to the harshness than what I have heard from other brands, and I recommend them as a possible or part solution. The fact is some people are more sensitive to this issue than others, as I am one, and they may have to spend a little more to get higher quality in all areas - speakers, electronics, and even room treatment. But there is one other source of harshness I have found, at least to my ears, and that is some power conditioners, especially series mode surge protectors (Zero Surge; Surgex; Brickwall) but also some otherwise well known brands of MOV SPs, such as Monster, Furman, APC, and Panamax. The more resolving your system the more this becomes a problem, I suspect. So for those using a series mode surge protector, or one of the above brands (or something cheaper) and experienceing harshness, and having tried all the usual solutions, they might try removing the power conditioner from the system and see if that helps. If it does you may need to spend even more money for a top end power conditioner from such as PS Audio, Shunyata Hydra, or Transparent Audio, among others. I found the PS Audio Power Director 3.5 was totally transparent power wise and was lucky to get it B stock, but used ones should also work well. I don't recommend the PS Audio Quintessence - I tried it and found it changed the sound of my system, something I did not want.

And before buying any new gear, consider the placement of the speakers and how it might be affecting reflections of higher frequencies.

Easy PU it was bright sounding. I purchased a sunfire amp it it took care of most of the Harshness. Hey...how is the L7 bug working out? Love my 885.. sorry you don't have one I like the older H/K stereo equipment. Hope they take care of their issues. I heard that the new flagship will be in the $1,400.00 range. Hope it sound and works better then the 7300/745. You never know, I may buy one?

William, I can tell you that silver speaker wires make my speakers shriek. The guy at my dealer accidentally used Silver speaker cable when hooking up 703's to a amp I was thinking about buying. When he went back to a copper cable the issue went away. The owner was not happy that the salesperson accidentally did it.

Just my 2 cents.

In my case with the H/K, the room layout was identical to when I had the H/K and the Onkyo. The Onkyo sounded better then the H/K before I did Audyssey.

why dont you just use the manual EQ setting in the rec to lower the high end a little . personally i think you are wasting money changing all your stuff around . room treatment is mandatory with metal domes . any good quality amp should sound damn near the same . if you want to roll off the high end put a sunfire amp in they have a signature built into them . but you could do the same thing with the built in EQ .

Did you actually read what I posted and you quoted? Can you not comprehend basic English?

I didn't say there wasn't differences between the components;

I said that those differences were "slight" when compared to what room treatments can do.

The OP will get 10 times the improvement in reduction of "brightness" from room treatments than he will by switching an H/K for an Onkyo or whatever.

+10,I don't have my HK anymore but I have the 805 and the HK was nice and smooth compared to the rather harsh (for music)Onkyo.and Yamaha has been the KIng of bright for many years (although I have not heard the latest offering).

It's also not likely an amp is goin to help,the problem is in the pre stage.And as was noted the room is a big factor.

Elmo,

I may be wrong but I think you missed the sarcasm of William's post. I believe from his post he is in the school of it all sounds much the same. My experience (and apparently yours) informs otherwise.

+1. Of the various things in the sound repro chain electronics are at or near the bottom of the list of things that affect brightness.

Furniture and speaker position, room reflectivity and source material have much bigger influence.

I agree with your statement on room treatments. My statement wasThat there was a noticeable difference in the H/K and 885 with out Audyssey. Furthermore the room was identically, the same with both units. You use the term "slight", I disagree with that. Please read my post. Hay we all make mistakes, you need to lighten up

I don't get it...you agree with william that what people are hearing is placebo. Then you say Onkyo/Yamaha has a harsh sound. Please explain.

I agree, 5 years ago I would not have bought an Onkyo. When I test one of their new 7.1 receivers, it sounded Harsh on Music and very bright in HT. I said I would never buy one every again. Then I listen to the Integra 9.8, totally different story, very smooth in digital 2 channel and HT. That's why I bought an 885.

Like I said earlier, if H/K comes out with a NEW receiver that sounds good, I may buy one. You never know.

Sorry, again plesae explain. As I understand, Clarkbar was agreeing with PU. PU thinks that the HK is warmer sounding then Onkyo.

Are you saying that there is a difference in sound between the HK and Onkyo (the HK is warmer), or are you saying that they sound the same and to do room treatments?

I read what you said and I stand by what I said. There's no equipment brand change that's going to make even close to the amount of difference that addressing room/speaker interaction, including room treatments, will make.

This is a very basic audio principle.

Even the very best equipment on the planet will sound bright in the wrong surroundings.

I do need to lighten up - had a bad day.