I also enjoy listening to music from that era which is the bulk of my collection but more important is the quality of sound you're getting & what you're hearing wouldn't differ much regardless of the genre.
Before changing out any equipment I would concentrate on the room & the AC. The room includes spkr. placement & you might also want to add isolation devices, esp. with regards to the spkrs. I've heard $10k spkrs. that sounded much worse than they should simply because the spikes were not used. Experiment with spkr. placement, as a one inch difference (or less) can noticeably affect the quality. Reflective surfaces (walls, wood floors & ceilings, glass) along with openings also affect the sound. In case you've already been there/done that maybe room treatments are needed?
Even if you have good AC with a regular outlet but share the circuit with other devices, there's nothing like giving your rig its own dedicated line, in terms of eliminating the potential noise influx from other electrical devices. Add on to that a better quality outlet & PC's & again, you can eliminate the potential of extraneous noise. Everything you can do to lower the noise floor is that much less your stereo has to overcome to run at its maximum potential.
I'm guessing your description of a fatiguing hardness is a result of an "in your face" kind of presentation & it's possible you've done the few things I've suggested & then some and if that's the case, I'd say it's more a condition of the synergy of your system & you would have to experiment with substituting one piece for another. You have a couple of different ways to go, depending on if you can borrow different pieces or have some audio buds bring their gear over to audition. It's always best to hear the changes in your system, although you could swap out a piece in a friends system, especially if you're familiar enough with it to hear what kind of a change there is.
I would also suggest taking notes to keep track of your listening impressions.
Before changing out any equipment I would concentrate on the room & the AC. The room includes spkr. placement & you might also want to add isolation devices, esp. with regards to the spkrs. I've heard $10k spkrs. that sounded much worse than they should simply because the spikes were not used. Experiment with spkr. placement, as a one inch difference (or less) can noticeably affect the quality. Reflective surfaces (walls, wood floors & ceilings, glass) along with openings also affect the sound. In case you've already been there/done that maybe room treatments are needed?
Even if you have good AC with a regular outlet but share the circuit with other devices, there's nothing like giving your rig its own dedicated line, in terms of eliminating the potential noise influx from other electrical devices. Add on to that a better quality outlet & PC's & again, you can eliminate the potential of extraneous noise. Everything you can do to lower the noise floor is that much less your stereo has to overcome to run at its maximum potential.
I'm guessing your description of a fatiguing hardness is a result of an "in your face" kind of presentation & it's possible you've done the few things I've suggested & then some and if that's the case, I'd say it's more a condition of the synergy of your system & you would have to experiment with substituting one piece for another. You have a couple of different ways to go, depending on if you can borrow different pieces or have some audio buds bring their gear over to audition. It's always best to hear the changes in your system, although you could swap out a piece in a friends system, especially if you're familiar enough with it to hear what kind of a change there is.
I would also suggest taking notes to keep track of your listening impressions.