Am I deaf?

No, I don't think you are deaf. Although I haven't heard the other electronics in your system, they seem capable of revealing any differences if any. Now of course there is still the issue of the room. But I'm not suprised if they all sound pretty similar. I've been listening to these high-end toys for nine years now and I don't know what alot of people talk about. We'll I used too, but now it all sounds like crap except for my Van Alstine/Biro system which sounds, in my book, quite decent and worth the money. I wasn't even the least impressed with the Wilson X-1's when I heard them a year and a half ago. You might just want to try a marantz CD-67 and save some money. Now of course I know I haven't heard even a sizeable fraction of all the stuff out there, so maybe I just hit all the wrong ones the whole way here. Who knows?

The biggest problem here is the built in preamp with your amp. I had a classe cp35 preamp and I still have the ca-100 amp. The cp35 was junk. I can't imagine how bad the integrated sounds. Well I'm sure it sounds good but I can tell you your other gear has far surpassed the capability of the preamp or whatever you would call it that is built into the integrated. If you want to be blown away try a passive preamp from reference line. My jaw dropped when I replaced my cp35 with one. Just get rid of that integrated or only use the amp part of it because your maxed out! I used to only notice slight diffrences in front ends also if any. After I got a passive preamp everything I've tried has it's own distinct character. From wadia to theta to audio alchemy It lets everything through. Or you could spend 2-3 times as much on a powered one to get the same sound. either way you need a new preamp thats the bottom line. I also strongly recommend a really good digital cable like the MIT reference. That also made a dramatic differance that was hard to believe. These two things were the best upgrades I ever did for my system. Oh yeah I'm also using the pioneer 525 as a transport and until I can get a dac 1 I'm using a $300 audio alchemy dac-in-the-box. I can tell you that this little thing blows doors off the 525 as a player so I can't imagine what you should be hearing with that great front end gear you have been trying out.

Use your ears! To much bullshit in high-end audio.