Greg,
I've faced a very similar set of problems in my setup and room - an otherwise great sound that was just too bright. My room has wood floors and a tile lined fireplace/wall that I can't do much with. That said, I have two specific suggestions:
First, spend $50 and get Jim Smith's book Get Better Sound and make sure your setup is as optimal as you can get it. I thought I knew what I was doing before, but even some subtle changes in speaker placement and where I sat in relation to the back wall made a big difference in cleaning things up for me.
Second, if adjusting your room (to whatever degree you can) doesn't do enough and your ready to swap out a component, then my experience says the culprit is likely the DAC. I've been using the exact same PS Audio DL3 with Cullen level 3 mod and had consistent problems with brightness and listening fatigue - even after improving my room. Just this week, I've replaced it with the new PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC and the results have been fantastic. I've had three listening sessions of more than three hours each with no fatigue - something I could never do with the DL3. As an added bonus, I got $1,000 credit for trading in my DL3 - which is what you could get for it here on Audiogon.
But definitely start with Jim's book and whatever room treatments you can muster first.
Good luck!
I've faced a very similar set of problems in my setup and room - an otherwise great sound that was just too bright. My room has wood floors and a tile lined fireplace/wall that I can't do much with. That said, I have two specific suggestions:
First, spend $50 and get Jim Smith's book Get Better Sound and make sure your setup is as optimal as you can get it. I thought I knew what I was doing before, but even some subtle changes in speaker placement and where I sat in relation to the back wall made a big difference in cleaning things up for me.
Second, if adjusting your room (to whatever degree you can) doesn't do enough and your ready to swap out a component, then my experience says the culprit is likely the DAC. I've been using the exact same PS Audio DL3 with Cullen level 3 mod and had consistent problems with brightness and listening fatigue - even after improving my room. Just this week, I've replaced it with the new PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC and the results have been fantastic. I've had three listening sessions of more than three hours each with no fatigue - something I could never do with the DL3. As an added bonus, I got $1,000 credit for trading in my DL3 - which is what you could get for it here on Audiogon.
But definitely start with Jim's book and whatever room treatments you can muster first.
Good luck!