Ucsb21: You said "The major issue I have with some of my albums is that the mids and highs appear to be hidden behind the music. The crash of cymbals, the snap of the snare, vocals etc. sound muted or veiled. If I adjust the treble and turn the volume up it makes it a little better but, not always."
While the sources you mentioned may very well be the bulk of the problem (seeing as how some are worse than others and some are fine). That being said - you can do a couple of things to make the best of it - particularly if you like the music that happens to be prolematic and want to listen to the music. One, which I state only for your consideration, is acoustic room changes. As you are finding muffled highs and mids rather than harsh highs and mids - you may want to make the environment a little less absorbing and more reflective - I have never tried that, never having had that problem, but it is worth a shot.
On another note (pun intended), while I am not a big one for amps making a huge difference, I will say that listening to Rotel amps I too heard precisely what you described. A/B'ing a Rotel vs a Bryston, there was a world of difference. At higher volumes the Rotel did fine and was very good at controlling the bass, but at lower volumes there was just the effect you found. While I do not own a Bryston - that may be something for you to consider. The 100 SST did a very nice job of driving Dali Mk II 400's - it is a 100 watt integrated and I think not priced too high. The 4bSST amplifier also did a very nice job - a little more expensive but a lot more power and a very well respected amplifier. I tend to agree with your plan - I think you will find that replacing the amp even if you have to use the Rotel as a preamp may be an economical good interim solution. It could not hurt anything to demo the Bryston units - and do so with the problem recordings as well as the ones that sound fine.
