First time poster here.
Finally after many years in the dark with HT receivers and surround sound found the time and space for a proper 2-channel system again in my life. I did cast the net to the usual places where good stuff lives and pulled out a pair of JBL L100 Centurys in an acceptable condition, and 2 power amps Yamaha MX-600U and Adcom 2535, all for a whooping $200. Surprisingly everything works, but despite my high hopes for the Yamaha it just doesn't sound right with the L100s, the low-end is fine but the mids and treble are just too harsh and raspy. I'm familiar with the criticism that L100s get for their in the face character, but the Adcom produces a much better balanced sound I can live with, as does a Marantz 1060B I also have. It seems that the Yamaha has better resolution, but the coloring is just too tiring. So I'm scratching my head is this just because Yamaha doesn't match well with L100s or it needs work. Can bad caps contribute to this effect? I noticed at least one leaky cap on the PCB. I did replace my share of bad caps in my life in the past, but from my memory you typically get a weak or not-working channel, lack of low frequencies, or some odd noise with a bad cap, which is clearly not what is happening here. Any opinions?
As for my source, please don't laugh but at the moment I'm using a Sony Xperia z3+ phone with Spotify premium at 320 kbps. The phone actually has a decent DAC on it, and sounds better than one might expect. No preamp, I'm feeding from the phone to the amp directly.
Finally after many years in the dark with HT receivers and surround sound found the time and space for a proper 2-channel system again in my life. I did cast the net to the usual places where good stuff lives and pulled out a pair of JBL L100 Centurys in an acceptable condition, and 2 power amps Yamaha MX-600U and Adcom 2535, all for a whooping $200. Surprisingly everything works, but despite my high hopes for the Yamaha it just doesn't sound right with the L100s, the low-end is fine but the mids and treble are just too harsh and raspy. I'm familiar with the criticism that L100s get for their in the face character, but the Adcom produces a much better balanced sound I can live with, as does a Marantz 1060B I also have. It seems that the Yamaha has better resolution, but the coloring is just too tiring. So I'm scratching my head is this just because Yamaha doesn't match well with L100s or it needs work. Can bad caps contribute to this effect? I noticed at least one leaky cap on the PCB. I did replace my share of bad caps in my life in the past, but from my memory you typically get a weak or not-working channel, lack of low frequencies, or some odd noise with a bad cap, which is clearly not what is happening here. Any opinions?
As for my source, please don't laugh but at the moment I'm using a Sony Xperia z3+ phone with Spotify premium at 320 kbps. The phone actually has a decent DAC on it, and sounds better than one might expect. No preamp, I'm feeding from the phone to the amp directly.
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