Source of Brightness

What are your cables? None of the three components you mentioned are particularily known to be bright. However, all Maggies tend to show any harshness in the system. Also, the Maggies have no bass! when you have no bass, the highs catch more attention, so that can add to the sense of brightness. Lastly, Maggies are EXTREMELY picky as far as distance from back wall, which effects the midbass and bass response. You might try moving them forwards and backwards, to see if you can increase the midrange and midbass, which will certainly help put the highs into better proportion.

Both prior suggestions are noteworthy and other possibilities are yet to be explored.You mention about the sacd format.If you have one of these players as I once had,then from extensive researching of many posts and audio reviews,one needs to burn the player in for 500 hours for each of the 2 formats for the optimum in sonic satisfaction.If you play at a very loud listening level,then this will add to your problem,as well as will the acoutic nature of your room.

try carpeting your room

As a content owner of a Linn Genki I can assure you it is not the CD player. The problem likely lies primarily with the room (the forgotten component), or perhaps with the cables. Or, as the astute Mr. Eber notes, you may have the condition known as 'tinnitus audiophilia,' which is unfortunately almost always fatal (to your bank account!)

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't mention, the wires are analysis plus oval9 speaker, and cardas cross interconnect. The room is 18X24, and the speakers are 5' from the rear wall. I starting to think that it is a combination of CDs being bright and since the sound is so clean maybe playing it too loud to here the lower level details of the recording.