Confused and need help

After finding out that my 1.7 maggies were going faulty and losing their sparkle i went on the hunt for new gear.
I took my gear (2x parasound A21 and my ARC LS17se preamp ) and went shopping. 
I had heard great comments about the 30.2 harbeths so i hooked up my gear and listened for a few hours, i was not impressed, something was missing, it was flat, and boring. 
I connected up the new Ayre integrated amp and wow, the 30.2 sounded so full, warm, accurate.
Surely my electronics are not that poor quality?