Alleviate brightness by using tube pre?

Components will never cure room anomalies, only deceive you into thinking that's what you're doing. GET SOME ASC TRAPS AND FRESCOES. Whenever you do get around to doing this, you'll realize that all the time you spent evaluating your system and trying to improve it BEFORE YOU GOT THEM WAS WASTED. They're plenty stylish, but if you can't put them in the room you listen in, then move to another room, or listen with headphones.

Carl is right, the cheapest and most benefficial way to upgrade your system is changes you can make in your room. Heavy curtains, persian rug, bookshelves...etc. Room acoustic is THE most important "tweak"

Hi Srama. The two above postees are right on-- treat your room. I've been there and done that, and ASC tube traps are great. If you added a tube pre-amp you would only have a little smoother irritating brightness. I envy your 20 ft. ceilings-- as long as your room isn't square you have potential for great music quality.

Yes, our room adds and subtracts a lot of information to audio signal. And, most of us don’t have a dedicated listening room for aggressive room treatment :( And, usually a good spot for speaker is a bad spot for our spouse :) You might want to use near field listening test to learn how much room you are hearing first. One possible way to combat room problem is to use planar speakers. I also believe that the tube front-end will elevate your listening pleasure to combat room problem.