Need suggestions for "adding more warmth/reducing some harshness."

[Eric5676]

You can see what my current, primary home rig for headphone useage currently is.

My sound quality is fantastic except for two things:

1.) I need to find a way to inject some more warmth without taking away from everything else.

2.) There's a touch of harshess that shows up at times that could stand to be refined out of there.

This is not an earth shattering, extreme problem.

That being said, I'm considering all kind of things from an external DAC that would turn my Onkyo 1000 into a glorified transport, a different set of cans although I'd hate to lose the 701's strengths, possibly a new source outright, or maybe some kind of "accessory" like this: http://www.musicdirect.com/products/detail.asp?sku=WMFX10V3PSU

I wouldn't surprise me at all if some kind of tube lovin' has to get into this picture one way or the other.

Basically I'm wide open to the world within reason, as reasonable as our hobby can be anyways.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2756077#post2756077

Start from post 12 and work your way forward that gives you a better idea of where I'm at with all of this. Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Replace your stock power cords with thicker guage cords.

Replace any silver cables or stock cables with decent copper or gold ones.

If your cd player uses opamps, upgrade them or get one with a better analogue stage.

Replace the 701's with senn hd650's.

All these things can cause harshness/brightness in the highs. If you can find a oneac cb1112 on ebay for cheap, I recommend it for power conditioning.

Biggie.

[Eric5676]

Replace your stock power cords with thicker guage cords.

I'll look into this further...

Replace any silver cables or stock cables with decent copper or gold ones.

Done.

If your cd player uses opamps, upgrade them or get one with a better analogue stage.

Exploring this option... Wouldn't mind some recommendations along these lines.

Replace the 701's with senn hd650's.

You aren't the first person to suggest this. I may very well get a pair of 650's in here for a direct shootout. That's certainly easy and relatively painless. I do love the 701's for their strengths and I found going to a Black Dragon cable helped those strengths and minimized their weaknesses a bit.

Based on your second suggestion, I take it you would NOT recommend the stock Senns cable? If so, would you recommend Cardas, Equinox, or something from Drew at Moon Audio?

All these things can cause harshness/brightness in the highs. If you can find a oneac cb1112 on ebay for cheap, I recommend it for power conditioning.

Biggie.

I'll look into that, but right now I have all of my gear going into a Belkin PF60 and I've been very pleased with it.

[Dusty Chalk]

Replace the 701's with senn hd650's.

...or Beyerdynamic DT880's.

[en480c4]

I'm not familiar with most of your gear, so I'm not sure how much of a help I can be. But my suggestion would be to look into tracking down the DAC I just picked up, which is a Denon DA-500. I'm very sensitive to things that are overly-bright or harsh, so I've always loved the Denon CD/DVD/Universal players with their ALPHA processor. I've always found them to have plenty of detail and resolution while maintaining a very "analog" sound and a warmth I find lacking in most sources. Even my PPA v2 never seemed too bright or harsh, and that is generally regarded as one of the more sterile amps out there. Unfortunately for me, they only put their current ALPHA 24 Plus processor in their gear that's well out of my price range. With my luck with Denon transports being quite bad, I was thrilled to come across the DAC they released back in the '90s. I loved my Denon DCM-560 CD player with the 20 bit ALPHA and the DVM-3700 and DVD-4800 with the 24 bit ALPHA, so I figured it was worth a shot. While they retailed for > $800, they're available from time to time on Audiogon from $100-300, and at that price there's not a whole lot of risk. I liked it so much I picked up 2... One for home when my current Denon gives up the ghost and one for use with my computer at work.

[Eric5676]

...or Beyerdynamic DT880's.

^^ That's another suggestion I've had several people throw at me. No wonder a bunch of you end up with half a dozen cans!

I'm not familiar with most of your gear, so I'm not sure how much of a help I can be.

For frame of reference:

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=DV-SP1000&class=DVD&p=i

and

http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=488569

Skim over the first 4-5 pages of that if you feel like it. Even has some pretty pictures in it.

But my suggestion would be to look into tracking down the DAC I just picked up, which is a Denon DA-500. I'm very sensitive to things that are overly-bright or harsh, so I've always loved the Denon CD/DVD/Universal players with their ALPHA processor. I've always found them to have plenty of detail and resolution while maintaining a very "analog" sound and a warmth I find lacking in most sources. Even my PPA v2 never seemed too bright or harsh, and that is generally regarded as one of the more sterile amps out there. Unfortunately for me, they only put their current ALPHA 24 Plus processor in their gear that's well out of my price range. With my luck with Denon transports being quite bad, I was thrilled to come across the DAC they released back in the '90s. I loved my Denon DCM-560 CD player with the 20 bit ALPHA and the DVM-3700 and DVD-4800 with the 24 bit ALPHA, so I figured it was worth a shot. While they retailed for > $800, they're available from time to time on Audiogon from $100-300, and at that price there's not a whole lot of risk. I liked it so much I picked up 2... One for home when my current Denon gives up the ghost and one for use with my computer at work.

Interesting. I had no idea Denon had even put out a DAC along those lines. I'll look it up.

[en480c4]

Interesting. I had no idea Denon had even put out a DAC along those lines. I'll look it up.

Neither did I, but it was a pleasant surprise.

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Based on your second suggestion, I take it you would NOT recommend the stock Senns cable? If so, would you recommend Cardas, Equinox, or something from Drew at Moon Audio?

I'll look into that, but right now I have all of my gear going into a Belkin PF60 and I've been very pleased with it.

That looks mighty fancy. No need to look into the oneac probably.

I've listened to the Cardas, Equinox and Olebauch (from Meir Audio) and all were an improvement in smoothness in the highs over the stock sennheiser cable.

Biggie.

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Crap past edit period. Heres the rest of my post:

To me the senn hd650 and akg701 share a similar presentation, but the senns have more weight to their sound and a darker/warmer midrange, with smoother highs. I'm a grado fan myself. The beyer 880's look like they have more treble energy then the hd650's but I've never bothered to listen to a pair though.

Biggie.

[Eric5676]

That looks mighty fancy. No need to look into the oneac probably.

I lucked out when I got it on sale legit for about 40 percent off of MSRP!

I've listened to the Cardas, Equinox and Olebauch (from Meir Audio) and all were an improvement in smoothness in the highs over the stock sennheiser cable.

Biggie.

Not a surprise. More often than not, it mystifies me when these companies put these shabby stock cables on otherwise great products.

I guess it'll be a matter of "picking my poison" between those or Drew's Dragon cables should I take this shot.

To me the senn hd650 and akg701 share a similar presentation, but the senns have more weight to their sound and a darker/warmer midrange, with smoother highs. I'm a grado fan myself. The beyer 880's look like they have more treble energy then the hd650's but I've never bothered to listen to a pair though.

^^ Yup. That seems to be the overall, general consensus on that batch of cans.

[grawk]

You should give grand enigma's oracle cable a try. I have one on my 580, and it's amazing

I lucked out when I got it on sale legit for about 40 percent off of MSRP!

Not a surprise. More often than not, it mystifies me when these companies put these shabby stock cables on otherwise great products.

I guess it'll be a matter of "picking my poison" between those or Drew's Dragon cables should I take this shot.

^^ Yup. That seems to be the overall, general consensus on that batch of cans.

[aerius]

Crap past edit period. Heres the rest of my post:

To me the senn hd650 and akg701 share a similar presentation, but the senns have more weight to their sound and a darker/warmer midrange, with smoother highs. I'm a grado fan myself. The beyer 880's look like they have more treble energy then the hd650's but I've never bothered to listen to a pair though.

Biggie.

Actually you have heard the Beyers, it appears that the experience was so traumatic that you managed to repress the memory. Watching you go "the fuck is the shit??!!" right before you ripped the 880's off your head (Hamilton meet with Tyll) was fucking hilarious.

[Eric5676]

Actually you have heard the Beyers, it appears that the experience was so traumatic that you managed to repress the memory. Watching you go "the fuck is the shit??!!" right before you ripped the 880's off your head (Hamilton meet with Tyll) was fucking hilarious.

Too bad we all couldn't have seen that.

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Actually you have heard the Beyers, it appears that the experience was so traumatic that you managed to repress the memory. Watching you go "the fuck is the shit??!!" right before you ripped the 880's off your head (Hamilton meet with Tyll) was fucking hilarious.

Well, I do have a way with headphones.

BIggie.