Conrad johnson amp with Musical Fidelity pre

Thank you all for the input.

The dissatisfaction comes from ear strain shortly after sitting down to listen. The sound is thinner than I'd like.

Speakers before: Boston Acoustic. Speakers today: Harbeth SHL-5

I deliberately kept the speakers out of the mix to keep the focus on the amp/preamp. I knew that it was not giving you the whole equation but sometimes that helps me solve the problem anyway and keeps me from looking at the less obvious solutions/suggestions.

Without the speakers in the mix, you've taught me two things: 1. Maybe a preamp is not necessary if you have volume control on your source. I can't wait to take the pre-amp out of the mix to see if there is a change, and
2. MF - I read as much as I could and every thing seemed to draw me back to this company. Maybe I misinterpreted information on the MF.

Other ?:
Other than as switching device, general volume control and if present, a phono stage, what is the purpose of the pre-amp? Is the ideal pre-amp one that adds no color at all?

This simplest solutions are often of the KISS nature, but alas, the speakers are in phase. It is a valid ? given my aging eyes and laziness as my glasses are often downstairs when I'm upstairs in my audio room working on small parts...

Milliwat: - have you ever tried Mapleshade's products?

Thanks for keeping the knowledge coming..and to Usblues, that's what brought me here...buying and trying off this site. I've just begun the fight.

So, days later, Harbeths repositioned, more broken in, some other tweaks, and gone is the tinniness and fatigue. I'm extremely grateful for my gear today.

Yes, I've heard better setups. A pair of Focals with a Krell integrated and CD player as it is set up in the Newington, NH Tweeters is one. I believed Paul Desmond was standing right there, just in front of Dave Brubeck; I'm sure of it.

But I can make what I have better, too. For example, I'm building my own speaker stands especially for these monitors.

I now understand what it means to have speakers disappear and that to me is just jaw dropping amazing.