A breakthrough!

[Diapason]

I'm almost embarrassed to share this because it makes me look like an idiot. Then again it seems only fair given that I am, in fact, an idiot. There's no need to read all of what follows if rampant stupidity offends you. The tl;dr version is:

Make sure your speakers' drivers are screwed into the cabinets.

Keen observers will know that I've been suffering a general background dissatisfaction with my system for some time, and while various changes of components/cables/positioning/sound treatments have helped, the background problem remained. Listening to other systems with similar or even identical components caused me tremendous anguish, and it had got to the point where, having exhausted every other explanation, I was starting to think my speakers were "broken". I even mentioned this to Ciaran, having heard such dramatically different performance from identical speakers in his system.

A few weeks ago, I happened to touch the speakers while they were playing and I was surprised to discover that the cabinets were vibrating wildly. In Steve's house a few days later I repeated the experiment and found his Kharmas' cabinets hardly vibrating at all as music played. I mentioned this and Steve immediately said: "your drivers must be vibrating in the cabinet. Maybe they're not tight enough."

Obvious, right?

I went home, found the appropriate Allen key, and started turning one of the tweeter screws. It rotated freely for 5 or 6 turns without biting, so I assumed it had been over-tightened and the thread was gone. Next one was the same, and the next, and the next. I wasn't too impressed. Bass drivers were relatively fine, I got about a quarter turn out of each before they were tight.

Onto the next speaker, tweeter screws once again seemed to be turning freely. Then, one of them started to bite after many MANY turns. I went back and tried them all again and, sure enough, they could ALL be tightened.

I've had these speakers since 2008 I think. Five years. I don't think the tweeters were screwed in that entire time.

I won't insult your intelligence by describing the improvement in sound.

[Ken Moreland]

Better late than never , eh? Congratulations on an inexpensive solution.
KM

[Claus]

Great news! I have heard of this happening before and it is an easy one to forget to check. Now you have a free upgrade which means you must play every single CD in your collection to see what they sound like for real! :)...

PS: Where is my Allen key set? Hmmmm......

[Ivor]

if only every solution were so simple! It's a very common issue with speakers and worth taking a little time to check.

[Diapason]

Thank you!

As it turns out, I spent some of yesterday listening to previously "unlistenable" CDs, Blue Train being a prime example that I enjoyed very much yesterday. I now have a lot of CDs to get through.

[cybot]

Well, well well!!!! Just goes to show , eh? Have to admire your honesty though :) Does this mean that the little box of tricks you got recently is now redundant?

[nige2000]

its always the simple stuff that we miss, its probably the cheapest upgrade you've ever made, nice to have your issue solved

[Diapason]

Yep, cheapest upgrade ever.

[jkeny]

Just goes to show - Never trust manufacturers know what they are doing :)

[Diapason]

Just goes to show - Never trust manufacturers know what they are doing :)

Well that's true of course (!) but in fairness to Kharma, I bought these second-hand.

I mentioned it to Ivan, and he said that some manufacturers (B&W for example) actually loosen the drivers for transit in some models, on the understanding they'll be tightened before sale. It's possible that the guy I bought my Kharmas from did this (and given how well he'd packaged everything else, it wouldn't surprise me) but that I never knew.