Frustrated with the sound of my system

I think there is a fatal flaw in trying to get good sound from this system, apart from the sonic's of the equipment which I agree may not approach optimum.

The OP sez that the speakers are 5ft apart and he listens to them from 12 feet back. The speakers are only 2ft off the back wall and are not symmetrical to any of the walls in his 18x18x9ft room, not good room dimensions as we all know, and the excessive nulls and nodes which will defy correction, will all be too apparent. The room will have more reflections than just the important 1st reflections to deal with. But with a lot of work via experimentation with set up he should be able to get something reasonable.

The OP complains of harshness which could be from excessive 1st and 2nd reflections off the walls, as well as reflections off the ceiling. He wants more 'air' but in my humble opinion he hasn't even approached the height/width sound stage available let alone the sense of depth and 'air'. In fact even if he is listening in a triangulated seat/speaker placement, he still isn't getting much more than expanded mono and the attendant congestion caused by having speakers too close together.

IMHO the OP need to think out side the box by discarding for the moment what won't practically or esthetically work for him and play with setting the speakers up in a classic manner (starting with the Cardas methodology) and also set his system up in a very near-field set up well away from the boundries to see what his system really sounds like without room boundary reinforcement and reflections. He should also be mindful of the benefits of proper toe in used to minimize 1st reflections as well as optimize speaker focus without getting a hot treble (which depends on the speakers driver's designs on and off axis.

He should also realize that, as he has already been told, there is no cure for his problem without a lot of experimentation. You can't buy what he needs other than some good books on all things audio, especially rooms, set up, and managing reflections appropriately.

FWIW.

Stuartbmw3, I won't cheat you out of the pleasure of finding the Cardas methodology on line, but I would like to say that it is more applicable in concept than any particular specificity. I haven't read it in years but as I recall for box speakers in rectangular rooms it places the speakers about 1/3d of the length of the room away from the wall behind them, 1/3d of the width of the sidewalls away from the side walls. It places the listening chair at the apex of an equilateral triangle.

When I first used it I ended up using 1/5th in place of 1/3d and it worked well. Then I spent a few years fine tuning it! :-)

Another tip. Try toeing in your speakers once you have reset them until the axis of the speakers crosses well in front of your listening chair. Assuming your speakers are hot on axis this not only reduces high end energy, it minimizes 1st reflections off the closest wall and directs them off the opposite wall thus creating a long delay before they finally reach your ears. It has a similar effect with the signal bouncing off the ceiling. You can much more longer delayed signal related to the shorter delayed signal. For different reasons this can also increase the width of the sweet spot for listening.

Just something to play with. Have fun.

Rrog, You may be right, but nothing ventured nothing gained. Someone had to tell him the unvarnished truth. What he does with the information is his business. Telling him to put thin band-aids on a serious wound accomplishes nothing other than getting one's name in print. If he was foolish enough to take much of this advise he would be all the poorer and not more satisfied. Placebo effect not withstanding. IMHO!

I know nothing about the state of his knowledge despite his allusions about what he knows, and assumed nothing about the state of his knowledge, or the level of his interest in actually doing the work necessary to achieve some quality sound and I'll be dammed if I'm going to tell him to buy new equipment, or commercial acoustic materiel, or any tweaks, until I can see a set up where they might actually, audibly, improve something. The only thing I did assume about the OP was that he cared enough about his audio system enough to seek help. Why not try? Didn't cost me anything.

Good for you! No specific recommendations, however FWIW, I'll pass on a couple of things that helped me find the 'music' in digital, and to find a benchmark set of IC's and speaker cable, i.e. cost vs performances.

A tubed CDP! What a difference this can make! And you can roll tubes 'til you get the tone your want. For the price the Raysonic 128 is great! Great dynamics and warm tone but still retaining clear/clean highs.

I had settled on some Cardas IC's and speaker wire after having Nordost, Kimber, etc. Well out of curiosity, based on recommendations of others on this forum, I needed some long runs so I bought some Canare Quad 4S11 speaker and some Blue Jean IC. Very inexpensive stuff and I had no great expectations. I sub'd out the Cardas stuff. Considering the price I was amazed, but I get a much more neutral and effortless sound with out the excessive brightness or tone control introduced by the more expensive stuff. Who knew........Now I use the Cardas when I want tone adjustments. :-)

If you feel you must replace your speakers, of which I have no knowledge, be sure to consider that the sound of any speaker is the result of its electronic interface with your amp. Some speakers need good SS amps to drive them properly, others love tubes. And if your lucky, speakers with a flat impedance curve of (or close to) 8 ohms has the potential to sound good with either.

Lastly, considering the nulls/nodes you experience (I assume from the room dimensions that they exist, you might like to pick up a SPL meter (Radio Shack) and a test CD with pre-recorded test tones from 20 hz to 20k hz. It will help you find the optimum positions for your listening chair and speakers, at least to the extent that you can avoid the most severe nulls/nodes.

Keep it up................