Hi, this is the OP again,
Not sure if people are still following this. It’s been a great conversation. Here’s a happy update.
At the suggestions of many, many people, I’ve been playing around with room positioning and set up more. It has made a huge difference. Just sat here blissed out listening for the past hour. My system does sound a lot better now. I’ve also realized that a certain amount of blurring is a natural part of a lot of music, and I’d do better changing my expectations rather than trying to "fix" the "problem" so it goes away completely (although too much blurring is still a problem).
That said, this thread wasn’t really intended to be about my system. I was curious about this general phenomenon that I’ve heard on many systems. I was curious about what the best way to minimize the issue. I got a lot of great advice on that here.
Some people are curious about my system. I stream Qobuz through a NAD M10 and play that through Focal Aria 948s. When I’ve got some spending money, the weak link in my system is clearly the M10, which is an amazing piece of equipment for the money but doesn’t fully exploit the speakers’ capabilities.
I’ve tried to upload a picture of my room without luck. I’ve pasted a link to a photo below. The speakers are about 20 inches from the wall, 9 feet from each other, and 11 feet from me. I’ve got them toed in more now than before, which helps a lot.
Thanks again for all your input.
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMeoUz0OSCuchK7tqI7YCj7OrxEfmvEi6_QGhdm