The Rotel does not sound dry/sterile sounding in my place (hardwood floors with wool rugs) so I think it's your room.
Synthetic carpet dries out and ruins good sound. I think that may be the biggest problem. Replacing it with hardwood works wonders. Alternatively, it could be replaced with a natural fiber carpet (cotton or wool) which won't dry the sound out like synthetics.
I used to live in an apartment with synthetic carpet that sounded so awful, I covered the floor (in the listening room) in cotton batting (because I could not pull the carpet up as per the lease). It looked weird but it sounded 100% better.
Moreover, consider that the opening between your listening room and the kitchen effectively makes these two rooms into one big room at bass frequencies. You probably have a bass suckout (or multiple suckouts) at the listening position which will emphasize higher frequencies, which could result in the hard sound you described (which is also lacking airiness due to the drying effects of synthetic carpet). I had this exact same problem in my former residence.
You might start with measuring your in-room sound balance. Once you have a good idea of where the suckouts occur, you can re-position your speakers to compensate.
In a large room, a small speaker will need the reinforcement of a nearby boundary to boost its bass response. Alternatively, large speakers are more suited to large rooms.
I don't think randomly changing your equipment will make the kind of improvement that you are seeking because the room effects tend to swamp the tiny tonal differences between equipment.
Synthetic carpet dries out and ruins good sound. I think that may be the biggest problem. Replacing it with hardwood works wonders. Alternatively, it could be replaced with a natural fiber carpet (cotton or wool) which won't dry the sound out like synthetics.
I used to live in an apartment with synthetic carpet that sounded so awful, I covered the floor (in the listening room) in cotton batting (because I could not pull the carpet up as per the lease). It looked weird but it sounded 100% better.
Moreover, consider that the opening between your listening room and the kitchen effectively makes these two rooms into one big room at bass frequencies. You probably have a bass suckout (or multiple suckouts) at the listening position which will emphasize higher frequencies, which could result in the hard sound you described (which is also lacking airiness due to the drying effects of synthetic carpet). I had this exact same problem in my former residence.
You might start with measuring your in-room sound balance. Once you have a good idea of where the suckouts occur, you can re-position your speakers to compensate.
In a large room, a small speaker will need the reinforcement of a nearby boundary to boost its bass response. Alternatively, large speakers are more suited to large rooms.
I don't think randomly changing your equipment will make the kind of improvement that you are seeking because the room effects tend to swamp the tiny tonal differences between equipment.