Whats my weak link?

You all rock!! Thank you to everyone trying to help me out here. I suspect it's a combination of things: pre amp, room treatments and power cords. I think pre amp because the difference in sound is noticeable even at very low volumes. I played with speaker placement /listening seat placement snd overcame the bass issue but there are still many things off. I'm assuming pre amp and room treatments are going to get me 90% there.

I must say that I really, really appreciate all the help everyone has givin me, and so quickly, today and yesterday. Thank you, thank you thank you :-)

Do you guys think a peachtree decco would be a big upgrade over the ssp25 in terms of a pre amp?

Gotta ask, but what about the Vandys didn't float your boat? Saw you'd picked them up, and was looking forward to hear what you thought. Seemed, in the abstract and not having any personal exposure, like a great idea. Between the KEF and the Vandys, do you have a preference? I know that conventional wisdom (stuff I've myself parroted) can be that surround-sound processors pulling double-duty as two-channel preamps can be less than super -- thus look to thy Classe SSP. Honestly, that might be a great place to start, but what do I know. You're running very nice and well thought out gear either way, so it's really down to personal preference at this level, a far as I'm concerned. Put differently, if you were to estimate that you were looking for more "X" in your sound, what would X be? For whatever value of X you value, I suspect there's lots of ways to get from here to there. Maybe a little focus on that would help? I just hesitate to put too much faith in purportedly objective suggestions without unpacking motives -- especially when your motive is the only one that's worth a damn under the circumstances.... Not to say that I think any of the suggestions are not great suggestions, all make perfect sense to me in the abstract, just posing the question of weather it'd be beneficial to get less abstract...?

First off, scratch that decco idea; not what I'm looking for.

Hey Mezmo! Thanks for the reply. It's hard to explain what it is that I'm looking for in terms of sound because I'm relatively new to all this audio stuff. Basically, sometimes my set-up just has what I would describe as a pronounced midrange; it seems like I lose bass response and the extension, air and detail in the highs. My buddies system, who I mention above, just sounded so clean(?) and airy(?). The music seemed to flow so effortlessly.

I think I'm going to grab 4 gik 244 panels and experiment with those set up behind my speakers and at side first reflection points. I'll see if I can get some sort of decent pre amp on loan from somewhere and I'm thinking about grabing four pangea power cords (3 ac14se, 1 ac9). The reason why I'd go with pangea is because I can grab all four for like $340 from audioadvisor and I guess if I don't like them, I can return them; I dunno.

One thing that I should add though is that my stereo has always sounded quite a bit better to me late at night. The house I live in was probably built in the early 90's so it's not like it's super old. I don't know if it really is sounding alot better, or if its my mind set and lower ambient noise or if it's actually because I'm getting cleaner power, or a combination of all three of those things.

My room is only 12x13 and there isn't much in here so I had terrible slap echo so I grabbed a thick queensize mattress out of the guest bedroom, propped it against my back wall and threw a thick blanket on it. I've also got four sliding closet doors that I know have to hurt bass response at high volumes.

As for the vandersteens, they just weren'f for me. Compared to my paradigms and these kef's, they sounded slow (to me) and not nearly as detailed. I listen to all kinds of music and especially like percussive sounds; the vandies didn't cut it for me for drums. The vandies did sound crazy good for listening to house / electronic music though (so much so that it is going to be hard to part with them just for that reason). I like more of a pin point image also, and the vandies seemed a little diffused. They're a little on the big and ugly (to some) side, and I know it would only be a matter of time before my cat or girlfriends cat started using them as scratching posts.

With disrespect, I think your weak link is the fact that you don't have a plan. Take some time to define the characteristics of your ideal music machine, then investigate components within your budget that have a high probability, working together, of getting you there.

A great dealer would be ideal, but it doesn't sound like you have access to someone who is willing to help you define what you want and then suggest options to get you there.

Jim Smith's book is a great beginning.

Good luck.