Frustrated with the sound of my system

I thought I would give you some updates in terms of what I have been trying. Based on your input I moved around the room. The speakers are now centered on a wall, about 3 feet off the back wall and about 9 feet apart. The listening position is stil about 12 feet from the speakers. I had to remove the Kimber speaker wire from the mix. I used a single run of Tara Labs Prism Klara speaker wire (really inexpensive). I also changed the tube in the SFL-1 Sig to a Dutch Amperex SQ 12AT7. It has always been my favorite tube in this preamp...gold pins and pinched waist.

Finally I messed with the sub settings(cross over, volume and polarity) and also unplugged the ports on the speakers. The designer had advised me to plug the ports if mating with a sub.

The sound has imroved and opened up significantly. Not there yet, but a real step in the right direction. I still believe I have two challenges. First the digital front end is quite old and probably outdated, and then secondly the speakers are not a great fit. Prior to these speakers I had a pair of Monitor Audio MA-700 monitors. They were great speakers and I only replaced them because one of the woofers went bad. I still miss those speakers.

Anyway, thanks for all the input and help....very much appreciated.

Good for you! No specific recommendations, however FWIW, I'll pass on a couple of things that helped me find the 'music' in digital, and to find a benchmark set of IC's and speaker cable, i.e. cost vs performances.

A tubed CDP! What a difference this can make! And you can roll tubes 'til you get the tone your want. For the price the Raysonic 128 is great! Great dynamics and warm tone but still retaining clear/clean highs.

I had settled on some Cardas IC's and speaker wire after having Nordost, Kimber, etc. Well out of curiosity, based on recommendations of others on this forum, I needed some long runs so I bought some Canare Quad 4S11 speaker and some Blue Jean IC. Very inexpensive stuff and I had no great expectations. I sub'd out the Cardas stuff. Considering the price I was amazed, but I get a much more neutral and effortless sound with out the excessive brightness or tone control introduced by the more expensive stuff. Who knew........Now I use the Cardas when I want tone adjustments. :-)

If you feel you must replace your speakers, of which I have no knowledge, be sure to consider that the sound of any speaker is the result of its electronic interface with your amp. Some speakers need good SS amps to drive them properly, others love tubes. And if your lucky, speakers with a flat impedance curve of (or close to) 8 ohms has the potential to sound good with either.

Lastly, considering the nulls/nodes you experience (I assume from the room dimensions that they exist, you might like to pick up a SPL meter (Radio Shack) and a test CD with pre-recorded test tones from 20 hz to 20k hz. It will help you find the optimum positions for your listening chair and speakers, at least to the extent that you can avoid the most severe nulls/nodes.

Keep it up................

Another suggestion. Move your listening seat forward in increments of 3-4 inches until the sound locks in. I think you are sitting too far away. Sit as close as you can until you lose the coherence of the drivers, then back up just a little. The closer you can sit, the more you remove the room from the equation. Ideally, I think you should be about 1 ft. closer to the speakers.

Shakey

Although I have a transport, digital transmission interface, and DAC; I hardly ever use them, I'm strictly computer. Let us know if a computer based system will suit you.

In most real world conditions obtaining a world class room is out".Every great sounding system I heard over the past 25 years had this going for them "a decent room"I know in my room over the last 8 years I've tried 4 different amps,5 different speakers,5 preamps,6 cd players,all kinds of wire,all with similar outcomes.yea some sound much better then the other and so on,but it's still ain't right.One of the biggest changes is when I put in treatments.3 days ago I did an experiment .I took out almost all my treatments and tried to listen.My session lasted about 1 hour before I couldn't take it.So I put the treatments back in and it sounded much better.Is it still right, NO..My room stinks..But with treatments and a good room everything else is a lot easier.If anyone disagrees with this you haven't heard a OK system in a great room..