Question about weak link

That is the problem when you make so many changes at once. It is hard to say where things went wrong.
So you changed speakers, amps, and cables, and now things sound muted and rolled off?

Are you sure all the cabling is hooked up right? You didn’t hook up anything out of phase?

How long have you had the new gear hooked up? Might just need time for the new components to burn in. 

JMC and Mac offer very good advice. +2

Putting back the old amp first would be my first move after the cables burn in.
B

Many thanks to all so far.  I got rid of the old amp is one of my problems.  I was wondering about longer burn-in time.  The sound is absolutely glorious, except in that one important area.

Oh poop.
Then, I guess you are limited to waiting for the cables to break in.
How long have you been running them?
B

Aside from the breakin possibility that has been mentioned, the one other possibility that occurs to me after looking at descriptions of all of the equipment you mentioned relates to the characteristics of the SR speaker cables. None of their basic technical parameters appear to be specified (e.g., inductance, capacitance, resistance). Given the impedance characteristics of the speakers, which are fairly typical of ML hybrid electrostatics and are shown for the Summit X in the graph near the bottom of this page, if inductance and resistance are not low it could easily account for the symptoms you described. And the longer the cables are the more likely that is to be true, as inductance and resistance are both proportional to length. Capacitance, which is also proportional to length, is much less likely to be an issue unless it is unusually high.

You might want to contact SR and see if they can tell you what the values of those parameters are, either per foot or for the specific length of your cables.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Each component and wire will most likely place an emphasis in different areas of sound so you may have several trade offs.  When I was playing around with resistors in a preamp that I build, each did something different.  Metal film resistors for example were great at details and clarity but not so much for overall musicality.  Same for capacitors.  You will probably need to burn in the system some to see how it all unfolds.

Also, maybe the backing sounds should sound this way versus the other system.  It could be just a change in the presentation (front row seating versus 20th row seating) for example.  I remember using a CD with 2 guitar players and one would wrap his knuckles on the guitar.  With some resistors it was so dynamic, others less dynamic.  Since I play guitar I found the more dynamic sound to be less true to the sound although it was fun to hear.  You have to understand the music and how it should sound to see if your system is correct or true to the sound.  Although this could be a big crock of sh*t because who knows what the musicians were trying to accomplish, the mixer, and the overall recording.

Happy Listening.  

The cables, amp and speakers all have fewer than 300 hours on them; maybe it's just a question of patience.  Thanks to all of you so far; I will certainly contact SR to see what the specs on the cables are.

You folks are all great.

"I am no longer hearing very high frequencies, such as bells or chimes in my music, the way I did before my "upgrades."

If you're just missing these frequencies there's something wrong. Even if you didn't do a great job matching your components, you should still be able to hear all the frequencies.

You also need to list your entire system. Components that worked OK in your last ststem, may be a problem in your new one.

One other thing that you really must do, is check all of your wiring. Especially the speaker cables. Its very common to accidently wire your speaker cables improperly.