grainy sounding high end system

What cables are you using?

There are a couple of possibilities. Something may be broken. Your preamp may not be able to drive your amp. Your amp may not match up well with your speakers. Make sure all of your connections are correct.

All the pieces of the puzzle are of high pedigree so one would think the resulting sound would be fantastic, but it isn't for some reason. Room acoustics, cables, your state of mind and many other factors(some of which we can never conquer completely...our power source) all play a role of our perception of sound quality. I'm sorry your system is not providing you the pleasure you seek. I'll venture to guess that your system is deprived of the necessary power(current)to sound the way it should. The cause could be where you live, whom you share power with, the power provider, the condition/age of the service line entering your home, the circuit providing power to your outlets, your outlets, your power cord....I personally would look into this before I would depart on an expensive, possible futile equipment swapping adventure. Do experiment with different cabling within your system on an in-home trial basis. Please add more information so more knowledgable advice from others could be suggested. Does it always sound this way? Are there times when things sound better? Hope it works out for the better. Bill

Whenever I hear of a tube preamp driving a solid-state power amp AND the user voices concern, I ask if the impedances of the two are suitable. What's in OP impedance of the CJ and the input impedance of the ML? Just a thought.