How to fix my detailed, accurate but BRIGHT system

These speakers are best driven by an amp that doubles power output as impedance is halved... so that the volume in the bass is equal to the volume in the mids and highs. Your Butler 2250 does not double power as impedance is halved.... The result is that the amp produces somewhat louder volume in the highs than it does in the bass, which causes a tonal imbalance that emphasizes the highs....

As long as an amp produces more decibels into higher impedances (treble region) than into lower impedances (bass region), the speaker will sound louder in the treble.

Tvad, this is one of the rare occasions on which I must disagree with you. Unless the amp is approaching the point at which it would be running out of either current capability or voltage swing capability, frequency response flatness will have nothing to do with the ability to double power into lower impedances. Basically, the amp will provide a flat frequency response into the speaker's frequency-dependent impedance as long as the amp's output impedance is low.

The 2250's output impedance (or equivalently, damping factor, which as I'm sure you know is output impedance divided into 8 ohms) does not appear to be specified. However, even though it is a no-feedback design, I would assume it is a small fraction of an ohm, which would result in just a small fraction of a db difference in voltage delivery into 4 ohms compared with 6 ohms or 8 ohms.

Any difference in power delivery which that may result in is a function of the speaker design, not the amp design, as long as the amp remains within its output current limitations, which it should as even the last line of your last post seems to indicate.

I think the posts by Johnny, Rich, and others about addressing the room issues are very well put and on the mark.

Regards,
-- Al

Buy headphones or move the system to a friendly room -- or get another system for a friendly room. Rooms can nearly make a system, and can easily kill one. Yours sounds to me like a killer.

By the way, I know nothing, and YMMV.

I'm in the 'room/set up problem camp' and fundamentally agree with Johnnyb53.

Appropriate acoustic 'treatment' would obviously be a great help but if you can't, you can't. But at least get an area rug on the floor between your chair and the speakers to kill the first floor reflection. That would be a good starting point.

Then, assuming that you are listening from a chair at the apex of a triangle, and your speakers are out into the room 4 to 5 ft from the wall behind, toe in your speakers until the axis of the speakers cross well in front of your listening chair. This will go a long way in eliminating 1st reflections off side walls and, since many speakers highs are substantially reduced when heard well off axis you will get some high frequency roll off as well. It might even help with floor reflections but no so much as a good thick area rug. FWIW it is tough to incorporate an audio system into a family living space without everybody making some substantial compromises.

I don't think a change of components would be a huge step forward for you unless you can do some thing with set up and acoustic issues.

FWIW.

Interesting post and Excellent observation Tvad.

It also seems that Tvad's Bryston 4B SST and 14B SST didn't double down either, which may have contributed to his findings of lack of balance from bottom to top, while leaning towards the "Bright Side."

However, I'm not sure why Robert Deutsch in the Stereophile review described the Aerial 7B's overall tonal balance, to be warm and laid-back rather than on the lean and forward side, even though the Bryston 7B-ST in the review didn't double down its power either. Maybe it was the CAT Tubed Preamp he was using? He also went out of his way to say that it sounded good in most rooms.

John Atkinson goes on to say that, "There is a slight negative plateau in the low and mid-trebles compared with the midrange, which could explain the slightly lower sensitivity, and might also contribute to RD's feeling that the speaker sounded a little laid-back."

Also keep in mind that although all of the Brystons' here in question didn't double down their power either, they were all 2 times as powerful as the Butler Amplifier to start with.

It's all interesting stuff..., but that doesn't let you off the hook Greg. Your room is not equivalent to "Most Rooms." First thing you need to do is take your Wife shopping for some home furnishings, and if that doesn't work then you may need to double down your power as Tvad suggests, or add a Tubed Preamp like John Atkinson, or try different cables as others have suggested.

Just curious, these speakers are approximately 10 years old, so were they ever in a different room were they sounded more to your liking?

Rich