Sonic Frontiers to Conrad Johnson .

Look back through the responses.

The consensus is, your speakers need to go, and I agree. Nobody says to keep them.

As long as you stick with them you are going to get bright and agressive sound. You say you heard them to be warmer at a dealer, but a brief audition at a dealer will not reveal what you have come to find out, these speakers are bright and agressive.

Let me rephrase that in simple terms.

Your speakers are bright and agressive, they have always been bright and agressive, they will always be bright and agressive, there is nothing you can do to keep them from being bright and agressive, replace your bright and agressive speakers with some that are not bright and agressive.

As a final addendum to this discussion . My experience with CJ preamps is with the ls172 and the Act 2 , both of which incorporate the new teflon caps . These preamps do not have the sonic signatures of older CJ gear and are quite transparent but retain the musicality and timbral richness CJ fans crave.

Riceqx2:

What tubes are you using in the CJ? Are they the stock tubes? Sovteks 6922s are forward but it sounds like the tonality is quite bright. Some tube rolling will help a bit but it won't be drastic.

For cables, using some Cardas Golden Reference will tame a little of the brightness but it will be a subtle change.

Since you changed preamps and it is still bright, the next change should be your source or speakers. Hookup the Linn and see if that makes a difference. If it doesn't, your speakers are the cause. The Power2 isn't the issue.

One other thing. How is your room acoustics? Is your room properly tuned? I assume you don't have hardwood or tile floors, bare walls, etc?

Well, I feel a little dumb writing this since so many have responded and tried to help but here goes; The addition of the CJ 16lsII is a big step up from the SF Line1 in that I'm getting more info out of the speakers that I've rearranged my system- specifically moving the speakers...The B&W's came with stands which raise them 8-10 inches off the floor. They are like boxes which can be mass loaded which the speakers sit in/on. To make a long story short, I removed them and installed the casters under the speakers to allow me to move the speakers on the carpet. Well, all of a sudden- I have bass. Apparently those woofers need to be closer to the floor in order to couple to the room. I also pulled them out further into the room away from the walls. I listened to 2 Al Stewart cds last night and have never heard my system soung so smooth and warm. I'll probably position those speakers so that their distances from the back and side walls is within 1/4 inch of each other. This is a major improvement.

I'm glad you have sourced your problem. I discovered the same reason for lack of bass with Quad 63's some years ago. Couldn't stand them, took them off their stands, put them on the floor and they became a "full" range speaker! Mid/upper bass suckout from loss of floor reinforcement which the designer incorporated into the initial design.

Now that you have your attention on the speakers and their placement, if you have not already done so I would suggest that you do some reading up on proper placement of the speakers and listening position, how to avoid or take advantage of room nulls and nodes, taming first reflections, adjusting speaker toe in, ad infinitum. Buy yourself a Radio Shack SPL meter and a test disc and learn how to use it to your advantage.

This should keep you busy for a year or so and in the meantime you won't waste any money on new equipment. When you're done I suspect you will be amazed! :-)