Help Finding my system bright...

Room acoustics can make or break a system... Otherwise some
Extreme Electronic equalization injected would be the only other way to help flatten out the mids and highs to balance out to get back the missing lows.

You can chase the dragon with some thicker copper power cords, and colored interconnects, speaker cables etc... But even all this will just take baby steps and not totally satisfy or eliminate your issue.

I am guessing your plinius is an integrated amp, I have suggested in the past the Mcintosh integrateds do help a lot in these cases as they are rather warmer sounding pre section and amps all in one with a good 5 band equalizer that will pretty much fill out the sound of any speaker you throw at it.

Plus I have read the totems might be a bit difficult load to drive via efficiency and Impedance character, so if it drops down really low like 2 ohm some integrated amps might sound thinned out trying to handle the load or matching up easily. So without getting into a room overhaul, you might want to go the route of a integrated as stated above, no super cheap tweak is gonna do it, or a few hundred more in cables. Not to say it can't help but your kinda looking to just solve it I would guess. Only other free thing to do is some serious evaluation on speaker position, back forth, further apart, trying to get them on another wall etc...

Well my plinius is a 90 pound 100 watt separate. I do not think its even stressing pushing the model ones. And I know its not my room acoustics becuase I have heard my system not bright before. I have am starting to believe that it is my cables. Are audioquests known for being bright or revealing?

Are your speakers new, break in will take the edge off... It happened to me.

Room placement is also very important, closer to the back wall will give you more bass, putting them closer to each other will make the bass tighter, try to play with location.

My experience with Audioquest is that they are not too revealing and not bright at all...

"And I know its not my room acoustics becuase I have heard my system not bright before."

Macd,

My question would be, what changed in your system that in your opinion made it bright? I have AQ (IC and speaker) in my system and I've never got the impression that they were bright or revealing, and I'm the type of person that prefers a "warmer" presentation. Have to say I'm somewhat in agreement with Undertow that it might that the amp/speaker combination that is contributing to the problem.

Speaker placement, listener placement, furnishings, and room acoustics have about as much to do with it as the speakers you bought and more than anything else except the source material.

First reflections off hard surfaces like the side walls, wood floors, televisions behind the speakers, a wall or windows behind the listener, and hard coffee table will all contribute to a birhgter sound.

The overall reflectivity of the room at high frequencies will make for a brighter sound. A carpeted room with book shelves and drapes will be more pleasant than a brick-walled loft with huge windows and wood floors.

Aiming the speakers so they cross in front of you will reduce both the direct on-axis sound you're getting at high frequencies (but not at lower frequencies, with the speakers actually becoming omnidirectional in the bass) and intensity of the side-wall reflections.