I need some clarity


Hey guys, can yall give some suggestions on how to brighten the sound of my system. It consists of:
Ah! Njoe Tjeob CDP with the Burr Brown OPA627 Op-amp upgrade
Van Den Hul The Bay C5 IC
Parasound HCA 750 power amp
Acoustic Reasearch speaker wire (to be replaced soon)
Magnepan MMG

The midrange is quite nice and strong, the bass is fine, but I need more clarity and detail. My options in placement is very limited because I live in the dorm at my school, plus I have a roommate so I only have half of the room. I'm hoping I wont have to buy a pre amp with tone controls or brighter speakers. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
lawbadman
I also had a pair of MMGs in 1986-87 as background music speakers. They lack detail and are really quite dull sounding for real music listening. They are also based on a technology that Magnepan has surpassed alomst 15 years ago. The speakers are exactly where you need start (by replacing them). No silver or tube replacement juju is going to help. These things are fine tuning.
Solar winds should help. You don't have to blow your budget on telefunkens. I really like golden dragon tubes as well as svetlana, don't rule out any old stock 6922s. Sovtek are crap. Switching to the aragon or classe will still leave you with a softer sound. If you need more bite in the highs after new interconnects and tubes, it's time for new speakers.

Good tube sites: tubesandmore.com, thetubestore.com, tubeworld.com (pricey), tubeman.com or jeffssoundvalues.com
The late production Sovtek 6922's have about as much HF extension as most of the more desirable 6922's (exceptions would be early Amperex USA 7308's and Tungstram 6922's), so if you are not hearing HF detail then it's not the tubes.

A silver IC will change the sound. A good/inexpensive silver IC is the Homegrown Audio Super Silver (used ones show up in the classifieds) and it has an exciting sound to it.

Instead of spending more money @ this point I will suggest more time/effort in regard to setting up the system. Try placing the CD player on different surfaces, organize the cabling and experiement more with speaker placement (a few inches or degrees of angle will alter the sound of your speakers). In other words get the most out of what you already have and then go from there.

You are probably dealing with a bad room and a bad power source to start with, but fudging these factors runs into some money. Start with the easy/inexpensive things first.
If you're determined to bark up the silver IC tree (which sounds like a decent idea), I'd suggest checking out the kits available from Homegrownaudio.com. Assuming you can solder, $40 for the Super Silver (which is, in most regards, the functional equivalent of the $240 Kimber KGAC) is a no-brainer. Oops, I stand corrected, they've upped the price a bit since I got mine, looke like a 1m kit will run you about $70. Still worth a look, even if they're not quite the bargain they used to be. (And, looking above, looks like Dekay beat me to this one, too. Rats.)
Law,

I think after reading the replies that there is strong evidence that speakers are your problem. Changing tubes, ICs or speaker wire will tweak the sound but not 'change' it. Stop spending money on tweaks and save for an 'upgrade.' To answer your question about Telefunken, I have found those tubes to be darker than others, but have a very sweet sound with good bass. A tube that would add a little brightness would be Siemens (as others have suggested) or an Amprex 7308 tube. But keep in mind, its a tweak, not a fix.