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

Have you listened to your equipment through earphones?

+1 to Stringreen's suggestion. A good way to find out if the system ahead of the speakers is at fault.

"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."