b&w? in a bright room???

Sorry if the answer is obvious to some of you but here goes. I have a set of b&w 601 s3 soon to be 602's and a boston accustic sub. They are being fed by a denon 2807 reciever and a multi disc sony cd player.This little system is destined for a surround sound system in another area of the house. The room is 24'x14' with a 9' ceiling and hardwood floors. I feel that the speakers are quite a bit too small for the room and the upstream equipment is mid-fi at best. Now, I find after an hour or two the sound starts to bother me, a bit bright I think(can you tell I'm a newbie). Does this tell me something about my room that I should be keeping in mind as I shop for a two channel system to replace what I have now?? It will take some time as I'm just starting to audition systems (budget 5-6000$). Should I be concentrating on systems with a more laid back sound in the show rooms, so that when I place them in my house they're not too harsh???I listen to a wide variety of music from opera to acdc.