Sound is too thin. What to upgrade, add or remove?

I agree with everything above with one thing to add. Get your preamp off your cd player!! You have a potentially microphonic preamp with exposed tubes and handling low level signals and you have it sitting on a component that has moving parts and thus vibrates and also outputs digital hash and noise. I think you'll see an immdediate improvement by getting a real rack to keep your components seperate and isolated and also take care of speaker placement. Good luck you have great stuff, let it sing!

I agree, it looks like some room treatments would benefit you, as without them you are not hearing your rig's full potential. With parallel surfaces you have issues with phase cancellations and standing waves; corners are breeding grounds for bass buildup. Some absorptive material and bass trapping will give you more flexibility in speaker placement, cculd help with the WAF. Especially with your budget, you could look into some treatment solutions that are functional but aesthetically pleasing--WAF.

Have you experimented with differnt types of isolation platforms for your components?

Nice system BTW!

Thanks everyone, thanks for the suggestions. I will try n work with speaker-placement first before going further; however, there is limited scope of moving the speakers closer together unless I move them forward enough to clear the credenza and then partially put them in front of the credenza; this could potentially have a PAF (see Ozfly’s note for explanation) factor. I will see what is workable on this front. The speakers are not toed in as per Kharma's manual, and if I recall correctly, they’re about 7-ft & change apart (woofer-to-woofer) now. According to the manual the speakers should have a clearance of 4-ft to the back wall – I think I have a little over half of that. The ceiling height 10.5-ft could be another issue, not to mention the bowling alley like floors (actually bamboo). The wall on the opposite side of room (opposite from stereo) is also far away, say about 22-ft. So yes, I agree with you all, the “room conditioning” is the weakest link in this setup. The problem however is, the room has to double as our living room and therefore, audiophile type commercial grade conditioning panels may not work for this application. I have to resort something a bit more clever - for now cork based modern art comes to mind :-) No really, you've given me plenty to keep myself away from bars for days. Thanks again.

I agree with the suggestions regarding room treatment. The actual sound coming from your speakers may not be as thin as you think.

The large, hard, flat reflective surfaces could be creating peaks along certain lower treble and upper midrange frequencies that might give the illusion of an overall lean sound. Covering these areas especially the first reflection points with tapestries or unobtrusive drapes may help.

Your hard wood floors aren't helping either. But they're beautiful, and I think covering them up would be defeating the purpose of having them in the first place.

Being that your speakers are so close to the back walls there should be sufficient bass loading although as some Kharma owners have pointed out this may not be the best for them because transparency and imaging might be compromised. I think you'll have a better idea of what needs to be fixed once you bring the speakers forward and treat the side walls.

Also, Jond's suggestion of getting the preamp off the CD player is a good one. 6SN7 tubes are very susceptible to microphonics and can pass on any mechanical vibrations they're exposed to in the form of distorted music. Sometimes when one of mine are going bad I can here a ringing transmitted from the thump of my volume knob hitting the end detent that makes its way from my speakers as a "ping".

I wouldn't blame the Ken-Rad Black Glass VT-231s either. They have a reputation for a big, full, slightly dark sound. I use them as well.

I wasn't very impressed with the Absolute Power Cords myself. I felt they weren't much different from the stock ones they replaced. Your system definitely deserves better, and there are some out there that can help produce a fuller sound. I just built one of Chris Ven Haus' DIY cords over the Labor Day Weekend and will be experimenting with it once it's broken in.

You have a VERY nice system and room. I hope you can solve your problem to your satisfaction.

Cork is pretty useless but professional absorbtion/diffusion panels can be covered (disguised) with almost any open-weave cloth which, otherwise, passes the PAF.

IMHO, none of the other tweaks is worth spit (to quote a more public speaker) in this context without some room treatement.

Kal