speakers or room???


I have a nagging problem with a frequency spike in the midrange that I especially notice in acoustic piano (jazz and classical) and sometimes vocals. I have heard this in different speakers including SF Venere 1.5, Dynaudio Emit 20, Martin Logan motion 15, Zu Dirty weekend, and various other 2-way designs. I have not had this problem with Polk Lsi m703 3-ways, and some 2-way DIY towers that I built a few years back. Back in the day when I was still using an MXR graphic eq, I would roll off  the 250 - 500-1000Hz sliders 3-6-3 db for a more balanced sound. I stopped using it because it introduced it's own coloration to the sound.

My listening room is a small family room adjoining the kitchen for a fairly open space about 15 X 30 with a cathedral ceiling in the family room portion. The flooring is oak hardwood with 8 throw rugs in various places. I would describe it as being fairly lively, although the kitchen island, cathedral ceiling and a fireplace create some asymmetrical surfaces.

So me thinks it could be:

a. speakers, especially 2-way
b. the room, too lively, not well treated
c. my hearing going wonky at age 67
d. all of the above

Any and all thoughts, experiences would be most welcome.

Current system:
Hegel H80 or Primaluna Prologue depending on the mood
Tannoy XT8 speakers


dtapo
There's a mild form of tinnitus where the ringing is triggered only by certain frequencies and volumes. It comes and goes with these sounds. Since its not heard at other times it creates the impression of a spike or ringing coming from the system. A good test is to see if you hear it playing the same music at the same volume with earphones, ear canal phones or earbuds.

If that's what it is, not much you can do, you just learn to live with it. 

If not then next is the room. Slap or flutter echo can create a frequency spike like that. Stand a few feet from a wall, clap, and listen. The sound should decay smoothly. If the walls are unbroken and parallel you may hear a rapid flutter or ringing sound as the clap bounces back and forth very rapidly. That's flutter echo. Try different places around the room. If you find a spot with flutter echo the simplest/cheapest/easiest treatment is buy one 2x3 ft sheet of 1" thick Owens Corning fiberglass panel. These are light enough to temporarily hold in place on a wall with stick pins or masking tape. You only need to treat one wall.

OC is very absorptive. You can easily over damp with it. Experiment to see how small a piece you can get away with.

The better but more involved solution is a diffusor panel. OC costs almost nothing. Its almost for certain you find some place to use it. Mine are in all the corners. Those little triangles are highly effective. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367
Tinnitus? I hope my years playing in rock bands isn't coming back to haunt me! I'll try the headphone test you suggest. 
Actually OC fiberglass isnt very effective when compared with an engineered cotton or wool material designed for this purpose. I bought some cotton material from a company called Soundproof Cow which I think is very good. If you want to go cheap then the OC is fine but it doesnt absorb a very wide band of frequencies.