Mellow speakers

The Vandersteens are on my radar screen.  And thanks for all the brand recommendations.  Anyone have any direct experience with the KEF 104/2s?

In answer to some of your excellent questions:

I've got an Ortofon 2M Black on the VPI, and a Musical Impressions phono pre. 

The harshness I hear occurs on both digital and analogue.  I'm secretly afraid that my old musician/sound guy ears are tired and sensitive.  But my best listening buddy also hears the edge...female voices, pianos, brass bring it out the most.  Plus, the PMCs just lack the body of floorstanders.

I've played with speaker positioning, but I have limited ability to move stuff around.  My listening chair is in the triangle sweet spot, but the speakers can only move around a couple of feet in any direction.  My room is not terrible...a medium living room with lots of furniture.  I've played with measuring the room response with RoomEQ Wizard software (great fun!), and the room actually performs pretty well.  I need to go back and look, but I don't recall any obvious peaks in the mid treble area...mostly bass issues.

Thanks for all your input...sounds like there are lots of options and the Vandersteens keep coming up.  Better do my research on them.   

Good idea on the preamp.  I have assumed that the Ayre, being an Ayre, could not possibly be the culprit.  Got to be careful with those pesky assumptions....I'll switch out the Ayre with an older Primare pre that I have in the office and see what happens.

Lot's of recommendations for Vandersteen speakers.  However, as I see them online, they all appear to have a stretch fabric covering...kind of like the Golden Ear speakers.  True?  If so, that's a problem, as I'm certain that my cat Beastie will make short work of the fabric.

Seems I'm not the only one who has this problem with too much of a good thing.  I appreciate the transparency and accuracy of a modern speaker...but sometimes they're just too much.  I heard a big Bryston system with Ariels recently...it was amazing, but I would quickly tire of the aggressiveness of the overall sound.

Quads, KEFs, Vandys, ProAc, Harbeths, Ohms, Spendors!!!!  I've got a lifetime of speaker listening to do!

Thanks, DJVerne.  Unfortunately, my room is fairly limiting.  I can only bring my speakers out about a foot.  2 or 3 feet from the side walls.  Not optimal by any stretch. I haven't heard of the Fritz speakers.  I'll read about them tonight.

Larstusor, what state are you in?  And, do you know how to respond with a private message?  I don't see that functionality anywhere on this page. 

Well...I've had the KEF 104/2s in the house all weekend, and it just goes to show how great it is to have a good shop to do business with, so that you can take stuff home and give it a good listen.  The KEFs are going back to the store.  In short, they're simply too much speaker for my room!  Both physically and sonically.  Sonically, they have a pronounced low mid bump...really over emphasizes the bottom end of snare drums and causes a honky, muddy, ringy sound in the room.  I'd have to do some serious room treatment to control it...I'm game but I suspect my wife would resent me throwing out all her furniture and replacing it will room treatment stuff!

After all the reading and wondering, I'm disappointed they are not going to work out for me.  Now that I've placed a floor stander in the room, I better recognize the limitations of my small living room. I may be stuck with stand mount monitors, because they stick up over the tops of the two chairs in front of them.  A floorstander has to go closer to the center of the room so as not to be blocked by the furniture...and that makes them too close together, seriously affecting the sound stage.  I suppose a floor stander whose drivers start about 28 inches above the ground would work. 

The same shop currently has some Audio Physic Tempo III...but no Harbeth, Spendor, OHms, or Vandys.  Maybe I'll give them a listen.  Thanks again for all the helpful comments.

Mapman. 

Good to know about fullranges on my 1926 wooden floor.  My PSB Imagine T2s sit on a concrete floor in my basement (AV), and they sound fantastic with their associated gear.  My PMCs are on sand filled stands on spikes/discs.  I can definitely feel the room vibration, even without the sub. 

And, I'm a little embarrassed to say that I'm back to where i started with my PMCs.  After all the great information from this forum, I've switched things around a little (and questioned assumptions!), and right now I'm really enjoying the setup.   What did I do?

Well, first of all, I had set my Rel Stratus III sub using Room EQ Wizard. I had it crossed over at about 35Hz, so as to blend with the 40Hz lower limit of the PMCs.  Resulted in a fairly smooth transition according the room analysis.  I bumped up the Rel crossover significantly...maxed out in fact...95 db, I think, and I turned it up!  Way too much bass....and I love it!  Seems to have leveled out the room, perhaps.  Female voices backed off a bit, it seems.  I'm backing off the bass now, to see where I miss it. 

Second,   I borrowed a pair of 6 meter XLRs interconnects... Tara Labs RSC Master Gen2s from my local shop, Echo Audio.  Ran them around the corner to the Red Dragon Class D amps and put them next to my speakers.  i found some old heavy and short copper speaker cable, and voila!  I think the balanced Tara Labs might have taken some of the edge off.  Or perhaps it's the old cheap speaker cable.  Now, I think the sound is "warmer" with this set up than with the tube amp running through 6m speaker cable.  I'll have to spend some more time with it, but if I'm feeling satisfied all of a sudden. 

I'm going to turn The Dead Weather up a bit now, and have a listen....
 

Well, adding significantly to the bottom end in this case, seems to have made a difference.  I notice in my post I say "96 dB".  I meant 95 Hz.  So the Rel is now adding some serious bottom end below 100 Hz, and I perceive that the highs have settled down a bit.  A fuller sound from top to bottom. 

That whole neutrality thing is interesting.  I see Psag's point, and I originally set up my rig to be neutral.  But there is equal validity in having a sound that works with my ears and makes me enjoy my listening experience.  I feel like I've been listening to the gear more than my music.  So...I returned the KEF 104/2s today, and I'm going to give my old rig a new listen.