I have NOVA V's and I am not happy


I have a Mark Levinson 585 and a pair of Sonus Faber Olympica Nova V's and although I admittedly have some room acoustic issues that I am working on I am not happy with the sound. 

I listen to music LOUD. This Pairing thru a pair of Kimber Cable 8TC's gets bright in what I think is the 2 to 4 khz range and the sonus faber nova's seem to mute the lower end of female vocals, artist like Macy Gray or Tina Turner dont seem to have the same drive in the lower octaves. At the same time the upper end of vocals like Sheryl Crow can get too bright and cause fatigue (I am assuming this is in the 2 to 4khz range) I have tried every speaker placement you can think of, toe in, toe out. distance from front wall and I am adding acoustic treatments as fast as they can be shipped. 

Here is my question, I had Mark Levinson 436 Mono Blocks in the past connected to a pair of B&W Nautilus 802's thru a pair of MIT Shotgun bi-wire speaker cables and I never noticed that system to be bright. Granted that system was in a different room in a different house. Everyone is telling me that B&W is a brighter sounding  speaker by far over Sonus Faber. If I decide after all my room treatments that I am not a fan of the Sonus Faber sound where should I turn for my replacement speaker? Or is it Mark Levinson's Fault? I want Rich Lush Loud Musical sound. I like a decent sound stage, I also really love it when when you hear decay from the instruments. I don't really care if that's what is neutral or not that's what I like :) 

Where did I go wrong and what can I do to fix it?

Thanks Lee

Ag insider logo xs@2xrlross3

Sorry for splitting my post.  Compression-like artifacts are often cuased by excess bare wall reflections.  It's like the noise part of the signal-to-noise ratio finally rises to the point where your ears can't ignore it.

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@rlross3 I agree with your assessment of B&W Nautilus and the latest Sonus Faber. The older series SF such as Cremona, etc. were dark/warm sounding. But the latest SF are transparent and don’t have the warmth the older SF speakers were known for. 

Also, Kimber cables I tried in my system in an attempt to get a bit more air and details resulted in similar experience. The KS interconnects made my system sound bright and fatiguing. Yes slightly more detailed but the cure was worse than the disease. 

So if you want to keep your SF speakers, fix your room acoustics and try warmer cables like Acoustic Zen or Cardas. Also give AQ power cables a try. 
 

Lastly, look into a warmer sounding amplifier such as Pass or Luxman. Someone mentioned hearing Levinson with Magico A3 and it wasn’t warm not an indication. The A3 sound like the older Cremona may be even darker. 
 

An opinion….you should not use wires as tone controls.
I agree with @yyzsantabarbara  , I would suggest changing speakers, once you determine working on the room or sitting/speaker positions don’t help enough.
@audphile1 suggestion on the Luxman/pass is very good, but an amp/equipment change may not make enough of a change for you. You might try KEF or Klipsch, mainly because they sound way different then SF, but speakers are so personal you really need to listen to as many as possible. 

An opinion….you should not use wires as tone controls.

@deadhead1000 I agree 100% but different cables sound different. That’s just a reality. And hence my suggestion to try Acoustic Zen and higher end Cardas as well as AQ power cords. To me the AZ interconnects and AQ power cables sound most natural and do less harm than something like Kimber within the context of a transparent system.