My 6922 Tubes Are Too Bright!

@steakster "My experience with EH 6922 tubes is that they were too warm and diffuse sounding. I didn’t care for them."

+1

I generally dislike the 6922, and now do my best to avoid it. In my opinion, it puts forth a hard, glassy, and even shrill sound that can reach the point where I cannot endure it. It takes a back seat to the 12AX7, 12AU7, and 6SN7, in that order.

That said, so much equipment employs this tube, and as you have come with your query, we need to find some variant that produces sound we can live with. I also agree several of the Amperex variants do pretty well, though sometimes not to the required degree. I found the grey / black / smoked glass GE 6DJ8 provides that, without losing resolution or refinement, at very reasonable cost, and recommend you give it a try

I haven't rolled a 6DJ8/equivalent in a while, but found the Mullard to be too warm and smooth, and favored a Telefunken in the particular phono stage I was using at the time. But, the Mullard might be the ticket for you--there are various primers on the general characteristics of the different brands, recognizing that the 'branding' was not always a reflection of who made the tube or where. I do recommend that you rely on a trusted vendor-- too many questionable tubes being offered on the Net. Perhaps some are bargains if you know what to look for but, even having used tubes as long as I have- since the early '70s, I prefer to deal with trusted sources.

How does your room sound in general? If you clap your hands together is there a loud ping behind it or does it sound natural? You just might need to work on your listening area, speaker and your seat placement. I recommend get your room and placement to sound it’s best before working on tweaks and cabling. 

Some quick ideas on CD players. Herbie tube dampers since you have tubes, upgrade the power cord if it’s a stock computer one, then the interconnects to maybe something on the warmer side. I never felt my current CD player was bright but one of the best improvements I did to my player was change out the fuses; really opened the player up and has a more relaxed presentation without losing anything. Sounds much closer to my analog rig that I find I play it far less now.

Try the clap test first; not a soft clap. If you don’t like how that sounds work on your room first until it the ping is gone or close to. Good to have a friend help you so one can clap in other areas of the room such as where your speakers are placed while you sit in your listening area, and do the same where you listen. Take your time, as it takes a lot of time. Once you think you have it then play with your speakers firing straight ahead into the room and then play with toeing them in if needed. 

Will help describing your room and associated equipment, cables, size of your room, speaker and sitting placement.

I've been experimenting with 6922 family tubes to tame some of the issues you are having. In my PS Audio BHK Stereo 250 amp, I've found Voskhod "Rocket" 6n23p tubes to be just the ticket. The Reflektor factory's tubes haven't appealed to me so much. I also liked the Voskhods very much in a Music Reference RM5III preamp I used to own. In my PS Audio BHK preamp, I greatly prefer Raytheon 7308's to brighter Amperex, Phillips, EH, & Siemens 6922s and 6DJ8s. The prevailing consensus among most audiophiles is that American and European 6DJ8, 6922s, etc. are the best but I find them to be a bit bright in many applications. As always, YMMV. What sounds good in one application isn't always the case in another.