HELP Why no bass? Why bright?

Thanks Perkadin. Which speakers do you recommend to mate with Arcam? I listen to rock, but detest brightness. I am in the market and have the B&W's on loan.

Thanks jctubes. Any particularly warm interconnects you've got experience with? How about speaker cable? I guess I just expected more bass from the CDM7 NT. I actually auditioned the Dynaudio Audience 72 along with the MIT Terminator 4 speaker cable and was very pleased with the bass response. I was told that the CDM7 had even better bass, though I haven't tried them with the MIT cable, so I don't know if the bass extension was a result of the cable or the speaker.

Gotta blame the B&W tweeters. Balanced quite hot.

...or face the other possible that can happen: you can simply adopt to that brightness or tightness and say OK you were guys right, after 600 hours the system had opened and is no more bright!

Regardless of the tweeters, etc, I assume there would still be no bass.

Why are you running another integrated with a power amp?
Have you considered getting a real preamp (preferrably, but not necessarily one with tubes)? A good preamp would probably solve most of your issues.

Are you bi-amping? Many times this is why companies like Arcam have a matching amp for an integrated. Running a new integrated with a power amp (and also not bi-amping) is not really that much of an upgrade, mainly from the use of the integrated as your preamp, matching power amp or not.
Bi-amping with an integrated usually assumes the matching power amp is the same watt output as the integrated's amp.

I also agree with the break-in period, not only for the amplifier, but the speakers as well. Those kevlar drivers have a long break in period that your old amp may have been masking.