Speakers sound too bright.

Just make sure your positive outputs from the amplifiers is connected to the positive inputs of the speakers and same with the negative side. Also get rid of the jumper straps.

@rwalsh07 Try one or more Akiko Audio tuning sticks on your Lumin, DAC, and/or preamp. In my system they definitely tame the higher frequencies.

The sound of speakers varies greatly during the course of break in. I try not listen to them during break in because inevitably they will sound awful at some point. I then think I have terrible speakers, when after they are broken in, they sound great. Try not to pass judgment too early.

I have played with ML speakers for decades and a few things to keep in mind are: 1) They are line sources that radiate in both directions and 2) they are a capacitive load not a resistive load.  

Others have mentioned room treatment.  Because they are line sources, floor, ceiling and side walls are not a big problem, but the back wall needs to be treated.  I think only having 1 ft behind the speakers is a big part of your issue.  Mine are 6ft from the wall and I have a combination of absorption and diffusion to tame the back wall reflection.  GIK was helpful in developing room treatments. I’d reach out to them.

The other thing that I have found is that most solid state amps are designed to drive resistive loads.  I have tried many high end amps, but always found the best results with a high power tube amp and a solid state pre.  A few years back I demo’d and then eventually purchased a SANDERS amp to drive the speakers.  It is specifically designed to drive ESL capacitive loads.  I then paired it with a tube pre.  

Speakers are only one part of a good system.  The room and amplification also need to matched to the job.  They are tricky speakers to drive and to set up but they are sublime once you do.  I also have large woofer towers to provide the bottom end.