My stereo isn't doing it for me. Need advice

"05-23-15: Drubin
+1 to Stringreen's suggestion. A good way to find out if the system ahead of the speakers is at fault."

I don't see why that would be. Going with headphones means that you will be cutting out not only the speakers, but the amp, and probably the preamp if you have a separate headphone amp, all cables and accessories down stream of your headphone amp and the room. And your source may not sound exactly the same connected to different equipment.

Its a reasonable idea and by all means, try it. I just think the results may be all that reliable.

Greetings Dylanfan!
The reason your system isn't "Doing it" for your is most likely due to the fact that $495 CD players won't "Do it" for me either.
You have vacuum tube amplification and Dynaudio speakers which are just fine but a $495 Digital front end will still sound like a $495 CD player even with a $20,000 pair of monoblocks and a pair $15,000 speakers.
I have a friend that has a pair of $15,000 speakers and it becomes BORING to listen to very quickly due to the fact that he will not put any serious money into his source.(he has an $495 Oppo, which is great for $495, but not for spending any more than 20 minutes of serious listening to)
I will put a $1000 pair of mini monitors with a 3-5K Digital front end and 2k of amplification any day before I will go with mass market or mid-fi digital front ends. Substitute an Ayre QB-9 DSD in for around $3000 msrp and you will experience a new world. (not to mention putting an end to having to replace worn out digital transports)I'm not saying the Marantz you have is a bad component, It just can't do things like make every song on an album have meaning and purpose like a true high-end source component can. I actually have a $3500 DAC and a $7500 Turntable and only a $1200 pair of Maggies with $650 worth of crossover upgrade and it is ALWAYS exciting to listen to. Really, having anything less than the Ayre DSD and I would not know why I would be spending this kind of money on vacuum tube amplification and high-end speakers. Please fell free to email me with any questions, i'm not a dealer.
BTW, nice choice on the primaluna stuff.
David.

Dfarmer,

A budget CD player can sound damn fine, and anyone who has been in this game long enough can tell you that. Please give the pontificating about $3000 players a break. Dylanfan, ignore this "advice."

This site needs a like button.

One thing no one has asked about so far is whether you have tried both of the output taps on the amp, and also whether you have tried the amp in both ultralinear and triode modes.

If you are presently using the 8 ohm taps, and haven't tried the 4 ohm taps, you should definitely do so. The impedance curve of your speakers, as shown in Figure 1 here, suggests that a fuller sound is likely to be realized with the 4 ohm taps (although using the 4 ohm taps with the X12 may reduce the amp's maximum power capability slightly, compared to the 8 ohm taps).

That is particularly true because the Dialogue Five is described as using zero feedback, which is suggestive of a relatively high output impedance, which will be highest on the 8 ohm taps and will interact significantly with the wide swing in speaker impedance that occurs between around 200 Hz and 1.5 kHz.

Whether you use UL or triode mode is also likely to make a significant difference. As would changing power tubes among the numerous kinds the amp can accept (EL-34, 6550, KT88, KT90, 6L6GC, KT66, 7581, EL37, etc.). As would changing the small signal tubes in both the amp and the preamp. I (and others here) have found with other power amps that the choice of small signal tubes can often make more of a difference than the choice of power tubes, and can often mean the difference between sound that is unacceptably thin, and rich, satisfying sound.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al