Speakers sound too bright.

I have played with ML speakers for decades and a few things to keep in mind are: 1) They are line sources that radiate in both directions and 2) they are a capacitive load not a resistive load.  

Others have mentioned room treatment.  Because they are line sources, floor, ceiling and side walls are not a big problem, but the back wall needs to be treated.  I think only having 1 ft behind the speakers is a big part of your issue.  Mine are 6ft from the wall and I have a combination of absorption and diffusion to tame the back wall reflection.  GIK was helpful in developing room treatments. I’d reach out to them.

The other thing that I have found is that most solid state amps are designed to drive resistive loads.  I have tried many high end amps, but always found the best results with a high power tube amp and a solid state pre.  A few years back I demo’d and then eventually purchased a SANDERS amp to drive the speakers.  It is specifically designed to drive ESL capacitive loads.  I then paired it with a tube pre.  

Speakers are only one part of a good system.  The room and amplification also need to matched to the job.  They are tricky speakers to drive and to set up but they are sublime once you do.  I also have large woofer towers to provide the bottom end.  

I spent a year with a pair of Martin Logan Motion 40's... the model below the 60's. I purchased them used so they were fully broken-in. Bright is not a word I would use to describe them. Sweet and airy is how I would describe the Folded Motion Tweeter. I sold them and still regret letting them go.

In my opinion they need more time. The manual with my 40's said to break-in @ 92dB for many hours if not days... I forget exactly the time specified. Personally I would not play them that loud but a longer break-in could be the key. As someone else mentioned, play them constantly at normal levels for a week or two or three. Or until the return window is near. Many days of playing time also made a huge difference in a pair of speakers I got with aluminum dome tweeters. And check for any issues upstream.

So you are getting a lot of advice that your speakers shouldn't be too bright.  I have a couple of thought.

1.  I have seen silver or silver plated speaker cables make the sound bright.

2.  You should confirm all the bass drivers are working.  play music with bass in it and gently touch each cone to confirm is it vibrating/moving on the bass note.

Jerry

I adjusted settings in my streamer last.  I had it set to up sampling on various khz rates.  I changed them to native band it warmed the speakers up a bit.  I also played with the position a bit and adjusted my REL subwoofer.  It seems to have helped. I'm going to give them a bit to break in as well. 

I did also order some jumpers to give rid of the factory provided metal jumpers.

Is it worth changing out my Blue Jean speaker cables?  I feel like some of these expensive cables are over hyped.  If its suggested not to keep the Blue Jean cables, what relatively inexpensive cables would you guys suggest.  

The speakers actually sound pretty darn good, perhaps my ear is just adjusting to them from the previous KEFs.

And you right, bright is probably the incorrect term, definitely harsh in the midrange and upper high frequencies though.  There's no way I could have long periods of elevated volume, at least as of right now. 

I also would hate to start selling equipment and start going down that rabbit hole again.  Its out of my budget.  I'm a blue collar worker.lol.  Champagne test on a beer budget.

I welcome and appreciate further inputs.  

@rwalsh07  -  You are correct in not going down the rabbit hole right off the bat.  The key is to not start changing too many variables all at once.  Otherwise you will be chasing your tail and throwing away money. Give the speakers time to break in.  Play with the speaker placement, even if the location/toe/etc. is temporary, just to see how they respond.  (i.e. maybe move them further out from the wall or further apart, or closer together, you get the idea.)  Maybe some makeshift acoustic treatments on the wall(s).  And as you said, let your ear adjust from the KEFs and get used to different sound.  

Once you have done that and have a better feel for the MLs, then decide if they are going to work for you.  At that point, then you can worry about new speaker cables, or different electronics if you need to.

... just a nickel's worth of advice...

- Jeff.