Harshness in Midrange??? Any Help

Room treatment thats the ticket. Your gear is fine and I would think before you put the blame there try working with the room. I would say once you have treated the room properly or at least got it under control,then and only then would gear change be in order.

Possibly the LS16 which had a glaring upper mid and rolled off bass in my system(and every system I heard it in) coupled with B&W speakers which can be a little strident. Room treatment could help somewhat.

Normally i would address the room first and foremost..But IMHO its the ARC Ls-16 and low cost Kimber's not doing you any favors. This is a very neutral, but near sterile sounding pre amp. Your 802D's are very good paired with the right amp..Not bright at all, as the previous 802N could tend to be... and the Levinson is rather laid back/dark sounding..Id change out the pre amp to something more tube (lush) and the cables as well. Treat the room for sure regardless..

Being that your pre-amp is an LS16MK2 (6H30 Tube version) and not a MK1(6DJ8) version, that could be your problem. I would remove that from the system and try another pre-amp as a first step. The Kimber Hero and 8TC tend to sound brash in the mids, so here is another weak link. And the Kevlar midrange driver in the 802D's tend to have a very noticeable midrange coloration. Not familiar with the sound of your Levinson amp. Finally, I'm quite certain the Sony SCD-1 uses electrolytic capacitors in the output stage that I have found to sound harsh in similiar Japanese cd players. Sorry for the negative comments but we all are only trying to help you out.

Good Luck

Taking the room out of the context, I think the Kimber 8TC's are probably fine. I would guess the Hero interconnects may be the culprit.

Sorry to hijack this thread a bit.

Reb1208, may I know what is the difference between the LS16mk1 and mk2? Are you implying that the mk1 is warmer sounding than the mk2?