I purchased a pair of these speakers and a new Rotel 1042 two channel amp. I love the mids, and the base is good enough. But, the harshness of the highs is really unpleasent to listen to for any extended time. I have the treble turned almonst all the way down and they are still much too bright for my taste. This occurs no mater the source.

Has anyone else experienced this with these speakers? Should I try another amp?

Try different speaker toe angles toward your listenning position and distances.

What interconnect and speaker cables are you running with your gear. Wires should be the last place to look for to compensate for such a thing but some cables are brighter than others.

I am sure the Amp is fine

Is it on music you hear the brightness or movies and other sources too?
If it's just on CDs you could always invest in a Rega CD player. Or better yet, a tube DAC - worked wonders for me. Really cuts out that digital grain nicely.

I used the lossless download for my IPOD. I'm also hearing the harshness with my comcast hd/dvr. FM is a little better.

Not sure the name of the speaker wires. They are supposed to be pretty good quality. Blue coating with four solid copper strands (two red/two black). The outside has an arrow directing output towards speaker. Connected with banana plugs.

and the combo was just too bright. I loved the Klipsch enough, I toned it with a different amp. Both the amps and my speakers are known to be bright and the combo was overkill.

If you have a buddy with a different amp or even an integrated receiver, try that first.

I spoke with a couple of people at the high end audio shop I vist and they both independently thought the OPPO is the problem. They felt it has a reputation of being very harsh on nicer speaker that pick up the faults of your source. They have a couple of used older cd players, a 5 disc Sony and a single disk Rotel from the mid 1990's for around a 150 each. I'll take a spin by and test drive them this weeekend.

Anyone else have a recommendation for a modest priced CD player that they feel is smooth and warm.

I always like Marantz and NAD for warm on a budget CDplayer

http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MACD5001


http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NAC525BEE