After letting them play in the next room all day and evening, I sat down late last night to do a little listening. The sharpness in the treble is gone, hallelujah. Still puzzling over why the subs stopped working. I've reached out to REL, and turned them off in the meantime.
I sampled several things in my listening session. The one I ended with, though. That was magic. It was Murray Perahia's recording of the Goldberg Variations. When I put that on, the Stirlings dis. uh. peered. Like vanished. There was just the piano, hovering directly in front of me, well back of where the speakers were, and about 2 feet above them.
I've never had the disappearing speakers experience before, and I've had (and still have) some darn fine speakers. This was the only recording the Stirlings did it on (or have done, so far), but still. Holy cats! I sat up till 3 in the morning listening to it.