Help, too bright

I absolutely agree with you. Every manufacture has their own ideas of the perfect sound – and there’s tons of fantastic equipment on the used market at around 1/2 off. It’s soooo much fun to mix and match in order create your ultimate sound!

Stands positioned well away from reflective surfaces will help a lot. Play with the toe-in angle and distance to the rear wall.

BTW, fancy cables can make your wallet thinner and more comfortable to carry, but if they audibly change the sound of your system, there's something wrong with the cable design.
Good cables are electrically neutral, well sheilded, have good connectors, and cost about $20.00

1. MP3 is not a high fidelity source and should not be used for critical listening.
2. Interconnects that come with your equipment should not be used. For cd player to amp suggest you try MIT, Harmonic Tech or if you're on a budget, Phoenix Gold 810 (from Parts Express). Avoid the cheap AR cables recommended by Stereophile.
3. Radio Shack speaker cables should be replaced. For low cost, try Canare Star Quad available from Markertek or the CL-3 Monster cables from Parts Express. Search the forums for more info. Even a good ofc copper based 12 gauge cable will probably work as a starter solution.
4. Good speaker stands will improve the sound.
5. After trying all of the above, if your system still sounds brite, suggest you investigate the AH! LS Noise Killer filter for your speakers.

try virtual dynamics cables. the life they will bring to the music will amaze you.

No...it's the TREBLE-cut that they take FROM the music that may help that particular recording that may help Threetwo.... That's what lots of magnetic material (steel shot, in this case) does as a field medium around the electrical core.
Cheapest out for ThreeTwo is to install nice cheap neutral CANARE starquad mic ICs and star-quad speaker cables and relisten to several CDs, and then do spectral tilting with room placement/damping, IMO.