Help! My system is very bright it hurts my ear

@fatgosil, there are ways to improve the acoustics of your room. Use several throw rugs in your listening area, or an oriental rug.
You need wall-hangings, or better yet, some acoustic panels for sound absorption.
Don't try to fill the entire room with sound. If you haven't already, create a living space close to your system. How far away is your current listening area from the speakers?

Take a look at the Virtual Systems section and see how other members have treated their rooms. Those with systems in the living room (myself included), use rugs, drapes or curtains, plants, bookshelves to absorb standing waves which include mid and high frequencies. I have a tapestry hanging on the wall behind me and it helped reduce the brightness from my system.

Do you have a source other than your CD player, such as a tuner or TT? You have a good CDP, but Amperex tubes can have an "edge" or sound bright with some CDs.

Also, if the gain of the CDP is too high for the preamp, it will sound bright.

@almarg,
Al, the Input Sensitivity of the Macintosh c40 preamp is 250mV (at the time of 2.5V Output power) (50mV IHF).
Input impedance is 22kohm. Interconnects are unknown.
How does this match with a CDP having an Output of 2.2 Volts?

Al, the Input Sensitivity of the Macintosh c40 preamp is 250mV (at the time of 2.5V Output power) (50mV IHF).
Input impedance is 22kohm. Interconnects are unknown.
How does this match with a CDP having an Output of 2.2 Volts?

Thanks for pointing that out, Lowrider. Its significance, though, is just that the OP is probably having to use the volume control at fairly low settings within its range (at least with the Aragon amp, when used singly), but at settings that I suspect are not unreasonably low.

The 250mv and 2.5v numbers mean that with the volume control at max the preamp’s output will be 10x greater than its input, which is a gain of 20 db. That is significantly more gain than is generally ideal for use with most digital sources, but given the average sensitivity of the Aragon amp (1.68 volts input for full power), and its 200W rating into 8 ohms, and the medium sensitivity of the speakers (89 db, 6 ohm impedance), and the fact that the system is described as being in a living room with a 20 foot ceiling (meaning that the room is probably fairly large), would seem likely to be within reason. As I indicated earlier, though, I couldn’t find specs on the SE-40 amp.

Best regards,
-- Al

Thanks for the reply, Al. This difference in gain shows that the OP's passive biamp is not an optimal setup. All the more reason to use one amp during this troubleshooting process as you stated earlier.

Regarding Bel Canto c5i, I would just say it is very good, quite top notch, as I described and might solve the problem in a fairly straightforward manner.

I've been listening to my second system in our family room that it is in more than ever since acquiring it in fall of last year.  It was a demo unit from a dealer here on Agon and cost <$1000 which is a steal for all you get.  

It is a true digital amplifier ie analog inputs are converted to digital internally and processed similar to straight digital inputs.   Amplifier is recent generation Class D Icepower which enables the output from a small package.    

Its only limitation I would cite is it is only 60 watts but that  is enough to drive most speakers very well to good volume.   It does very well with my Dynaudios which are notorious power and current loving speakers.   Very smooth and non fatiguing with those which is not necessarily the case with all good quality amps that are up to the task.

Can't go wrong to try IMHO if putting out the cash needed is not a problem.

I also run 500w/ch Bel CAnto ref1000m amps in my main bigger system.   I added the c5i based on my satisfaction with those prior.