cedarblues,
Its natural to focus on the speakers but I doubt the problem you're hearing will ever be fixed with speakers alone. You may not even need to change your speakers. In fact you could probably use some really crappy speakers and yet still achieve the sound you want. Because, like you said, the same music sounds good in the car. So is it the car speakers? I don't think so.
Notice it got better with the Prima Luna? Because the Prima Luna is in the chain, and everything in the chain matters. All of it, every single bit of it, is contributing to the problem. Which also means every single bit of it will have to contribute to the solution.
You want full, not thin and bright. You want tubes. You already know that. You have some great speakers. You have a great amp. Feed them a great signal and they will reward you with great music. All kinds. Whatever kind you want.
You already know the amp took you in the right direction. Now all you need is to take everything else in that same direction.
Speaker cables, interconnects, and power cords are the place to start. The problems you want to address are thin and bright and a fatiguing hardness at volume. I never heard anything like that with any of the wire from Synergistic, but the same cannot be said of much of the rest of what's out there. So you definitely want to be looking into that. But there are things you can do to help that are dirt cheap too. Even seemingly insignificant details like where the cables go are contributing, each in their own small way, to what you're hearing.
Its natural to focus on the speakers but I doubt the problem you're hearing will ever be fixed with speakers alone. You may not even need to change your speakers. In fact you could probably use some really crappy speakers and yet still achieve the sound you want. Because, like you said, the same music sounds good in the car. So is it the car speakers? I don't think so.
Notice it got better with the Prima Luna? Because the Prima Luna is in the chain, and everything in the chain matters. All of it, every single bit of it, is contributing to the problem. Which also means every single bit of it will have to contribute to the solution.
You want full, not thin and bright. You want tubes. You already know that. You have some great speakers. You have a great amp. Feed them a great signal and they will reward you with great music. All kinds. Whatever kind you want.
You already know the amp took you in the right direction. Now all you need is to take everything else in that same direction.
Speaker cables, interconnects, and power cords are the place to start. The problems you want to address are thin and bright and a fatiguing hardness at volume. I never heard anything like that with any of the wire from Synergistic, but the same cannot be said of much of the rest of what's out there. So you definitely want to be looking into that. But there are things you can do to help that are dirt cheap too. Even seemingly insignificant details like where the cables go are contributing, each in their own small way, to what you're hearing.