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

BTW I own Dynaudios and run them off a very good quality BEl Canto Class D amp and this is a very good match to work with.

I have also heard KEF ls50s in my system. Like Dynaudios, these are also not tube amp friendly speakers. THey sounded good with my 500 w/ch Class D amps also in a smaller room but very thin off a different 180 w/ch SS amp (not Class D) in a larger room. These are good speakers but small so they can only provide full sound in a room that is not too big.

So all your speakers are a match on paper to teh Class D amp, and are not tube amp friendly. SO best PERFORMANCE with Dynaudios and teh KEFs will be achieved with a high power Class D or similar SS amp.

Applying a sub to offload the low end would work towards the end of using these speakers with the tube amp.

You have the best chance of getting the best sound fastest by optimizing the performance of teh gear that will be working together. Once performance is optimized, ie all gear is a technical match, tehn you are in a position to tweak teh sound to your tastes in various ways from there.

BTW I have heard of several cases where people were sold Primaluna tube gear by dealers with no consideration to what speakers would be used. In all cases the tube amp was changed to a more suitable SS or Class D amp specifically to get to where people wanted.

Or you could go with higher efficiency easier to drive speakers like Tekton or ZU or Klipsch for example to match to the tube amp better.

If tyou keep the PL tube pre-amp, make sure the input impedance of the Class D or SS amp you use with it is 40Kohm or higher in order to assure a good match between higher output impedance tube pre-amp and SS amplifier. IMpedance matching like this is another key for optimizing performance as a stepping stone to getting the best sound possible via tweaking from there.

You have to have a reference for what sounds good to you before you can attempt to replicate it.

Have you heard a system or systems that sounds really good? What were they? What did it sound like? That would be your reference. Could be at a show, dealer or another person's home.

You can't hit the bullseye until you know where the target is.

other than that, on paper, the Class D amps are probably a better match to the Dynaudio speakers. I do not know of any Dynaudios that are tube amp friendly.

Other speakers would likely do better with teh PL tube amp.

I'd get a good amp/speeaker pairing in place with speakers that best fit your likes and your room specifically and then tweak from there.

So there are various ways you can practically tackle the problem but its hard to say what the best way is until the target sound you are shooting for can be better described.

Change your preamp tubes to Tungsram or RFT from Tubestore in Hamilton, Ontario.

Been moving my speakers around. LP's sound pretty good. Just hooked up an Oracle Alexandria turntable. I do think my cd player is the weak link. I also have some framed concert posters on the side wall and behind me. Those must stay. I have the sub turned down pretty low.
The Dynaudio x12's sound better than the x32's in the room. I just wanted a fuller sound. Sound is thin to me.

Since music sounds good at lower volume and louder sounds worse, I think it's your room.
Room treatments and setup may help.

Some people including myself (previous room) have had success setting the system up diagonally. IOW the rack between the speakers is in a corner, and behind you is the opposite corner.
Steve Deckert has a paper on it. I had similar issues, read the paper, set up diagonally and kept it that way until I moved into another room.

http://www.decware.com/paper14.htm

Have you tried NOT using the REL subwoofer? Since it's a very small room you could be overloading the room with bass. The Prima Luna might not be the best match for your trio of speakers. A leaner/faster sounding amp(Bryston 135-Krell 400ix-Primare 30/31) and faster(better) cables(Nordost/JPS)could clean up the mid/upper bass of your speakers.

Very small room and close to being square. I would try some acoustic treatments at the 1st reflection points.
Is it possible to do an experiment? Can you take your equipment and place them in a bigger room for a couple hours? If you find you like your system in a different room, then it's not the equipment. If you don't like it again, then you need to start eliminating/changing things

Take music that you like to listen to and go out and demo equipment until you find something that will make you happy. In the mean time, don't spend another dime on your system.

You need a bigger room. With that gear, it will be tough to get good sound in a small room with similar dimensions.

You have beautiful equipment that, when set up properly, should sound
amazing. While the CD player is not on par with the balance of your system, I do
not think that is the root problem and I am a guy who believes the theory that
"source is king". The Marantz CD player you use is quite nice and, if
anything, it will only be guilty of rounding the rough edges of bad CD sound. I
think inserting a higher resolution player is not what will turn your experience
around.

You are not "connecting" with your system.

The proof that your system is amiss is evinced by the fact that you are turning to
music which is well-recorded rather than to music you like. That is a very bad
sign.

Your room is small but it's the exact same dimensions as mine and I get great
sound (sometimes). Explore better racks and/or speaker stands. Both are hugely
important. For equipment racks, look into Quadraspire and for speaker stands
look into Sound Anchors. I think both will pay dividends.

By the way, I see you like Bob Dylan. Bob's on Letterman show tonight as final
music guest.

Two things come to mind:

1. How are your speakers set up? Are the speakers on stands, close to the wall, out in the room, etc. Have you tried moving them around?

2. The CD6005 is not on par with your amplification ... your have $4500 in amplification paired with a $500 cd player. I would be thinking about seriously upgrading the CD player. For example, I have a Prima Luna Prologue 5 power amp (list 2k) paired with a Musical Fidelity CD PRE 24 (list 3k). They play nice together.

Question - what is not sounding right? Is it certain types of music?

Rich

I'm very interested about your problems. Few questions:

1. First when you said it sound not ok for you, which sound property you mean? High/mid/bass? Sound stage? Transparency? Dynamic and distortions?

2. If possible you can briefly describe musical genre that you are listening to

3. What's the music that sound good? What's the music you want to hear?

4. Between, I got the Class D Audio power amp too

5. Looking at your setup, subwoofer matching here could be the problem? Maybe, bass overemphasize than high/mid frequency?