SQ lacking

Something is wrong. You should be enjoying crisp clear sound.

You might want to further describe your system (cd transport - dac - preamp - headphone amp). You say you have a dac/headphone amp. You should be able to connect your cd transport to the digital in on your dac/headphone amp and plug your headphones in and be good to go. You don’t need to take the analog out and run it through a preamp.

If you’re not having some kind of connection problem, get back to whoever you bought your gear from and seek advice on your system and try to isolate which item isn’t working properly. If you can’t find the problem, return the gear.

Thank you everybody. I will outline my system:

1) Wells innamorata power amp
2) Jolida Fusion Preamp
3) PSB Imagine T3 speakers
4) Simaudio 380D DAC
5) PS Audio Perfectwave CD transport
6) Questyle CMA 600i headphone amp/dac
7) Musical surroundings nova phonomena phono preamp
8) Lumin D1 streamer
9) Melco N1A network digital library
10) Project Xtension 10 turntable
11) JT Dynamic Power 4 rail power supply
12) Dspeaker antimode 2.0 dual core room correction
13) Sonos connect ZP90 streamer
14) Shunyata MPC-12C power conditioner
15) Focal elear, final audio design sonorous VI, Sennheiser hd6xx, hifiman he4xx, Beyerdynamic dt880 headphones
16) Virtue audio interconnects, JT Dynamic Power power cords

That is everything that is pertinent. I just started listening, and just the cd transport with just my speakers and my Sennheiser headphones. Looking forward to streamer and turntable, as well as other headphones, but I was rather surprised at the lack of any wow factor when I put on these headphones. Tomcy6....so, my current chain is cd transport-dac-preamp-headphone amp/dac. You think that could be it? So do away with the dac and preamp and it could make a big difference? I am a truck driver and currently out on road...but can put this to the test this weekend

Oh, I think maybe cd transport-dac-preamp because if I go directly from cd transport to headphone amp then I can't listen to speakers without having to disconnect interconnects all the time?

I am going to try this, eliminating the preamp in the chain, but one would think that if you have a good preamp that the SQ would be quite good. I am trying to figure this out...perhaps my ears require more than what the Sennheiser delivers. I don't know. Hard to imagine, since they get good reviews

Some things do improve with break in, IMO. Speakers, headphones, pretty much anything mechanical.......even electronics to some degree. Have to agree with shadorne to some extent though. If it sounds bad now, it may......or may not, sound better in a week..........To some degree I to believe that we mentally "adjust" to what we hear and see. Over time we begin to accept what we hear as normal.

Were it me and it's not, I'd keep everything powered up and playing continuously for a few days, even at low volume, just to break things loose and let them get settled. Sounds like you put out some real money here, so if things don't get markedly better pretty soon I'd be having a heart to heart with the dealer.

You've gone the headphone route, so yeah, that takes your room out of the equation. If in a few days the phones start to sound pretty good, but the speakers still sound bad, that leaves two things. Either you bought a defective piece of gear that's dragging your whole system into the mud, or your room really is THAT bad..........which is addressable for far less than you probably paid for your hardware.

FWIW, I just did a pretty extensive room treatment and the difference was so great that I honestly barely recognized my own system and music, it made that much difference. Seems like you may have other issues though..................good luck and regardless of price, anything can be bad out of the box