Is my room doomed? Pic

Nice gear!!!

I'd try switching the speakers so the woofers fire at each other instead of away. Your lack of sidewalls is probably the biggest issue, compounded by side-firing woofers.

You should be honest with your dealer and make him/her work with the system until it performs closer to what you heard in his/her showroom. That's how he sold you, so you have a right to demand comparable sound.

You might want to try turning the system 90 degrees so the speakers have sidewalls to work with (a window and a wall). It might mess with your living room arrangement, but a nice L shaped couch with the sound system on one side, and the TV on the other could work.

I'm not sure MBLs would have enough space behind them to sound right in your room. Your best option is make an agreement with your dealer to get you great sound, and if he can't, then get a dealer who can. All high end luxury items should have this type of personalized attention. If your stuck with your purchases, then tweaking speaker positions and room tuning devices are your next best bet. Look into the Lyndorf DRC if your open to digital correction. I think the 90 degree turn would be a positive change.

Lots of good thoughts above, and most likely several of the factors that have been mentioned are contributing.

But I would single out the short distance from the listening position to the windows as likely to be the most major contributor, despite the fact that closing the curtains/drapes does not help significantly. I would go so far as to say that I would be surprised if having a reflective surface like that so close behind the listening position did NOT cause the kinds of problems you are describing.

Basically what you are hearing is the direct sound from the speakers plus a lower amplitude version of the sound delayed by several milliseconds (as well as altered in frequency response, both by the reflective surface and by the fact that our ears respond differently to sounds arriving from the front and from the rear). To the degree that the reflected energy is strong enough to be significant, that results in comb filtering, with a lot of it being right in the mid-range based on the distances involved. My understanding is that that kind of effect would correlate subjectively with a general lack of clarity, or what you are describing as a veiled and muffled sound. There would also obviously be effects on imaging.

If moving your listening position forward, as was suggested, doesn't lead to a satisfactory resolution, I would look into the possibility of some sort of large sound absorbent panels that could be put in place in front of the windows during listening sessions, and put away at other times.

Regards,
-- Al

You would think closing the drapes would help if the windows behind the listening position were the major factor, but the OP indicates that closing the drapes did not make much difference, which is not encouraging.

"Is my room doomed?"

Never fear, the Audiogon acoustic hit squad is here!

Your name is not Smith and you are not a Doctor, are you?

Break in is real in many cases. A

But also in many cases, you are screwed with no recourse if you wait for it to happen and it still doesn't meet your expectations.

Not sure what your exact contingency options are with the seller (hopefully there is some kind of satisfaction guaranteed policy) but do not loose the opportunity to return if you have it as a result of waiting for break in.