Hi Aribraun,
First world problems indeed and I am glad you are aware of that. So we will not discuss this like we are saving the world.
But several of your comments sound to me like you are not expecting much from your surround speakers. Therefore you are willing to not spend much on them, t SEEMS. And believe me, I have to live on a budget, so if money is the problem, then no-one, least not me will belittle that. Always a consideration.
But IMHO surround speakers should be quite good and FULL RANGE. UNLESS you mainly listen to 2 channel stereo music and then, no, those surrounds do not get much if any play.
BUT if you like movies, especially blu-ray movies with tremendous sound and concert DVDs or concert Blu-rays with awesome sound, or if you like surround sound music SACDs and such, then discrete full range sound and music go to the surround speakers and to great effect some times.
I have T 2s up front and T 3s as surronds, the T7s as the rear surrounds in a 7.1 setup. More than .1 as I have the LFE input into a FF5 sub and both pairs of the T 2s and T 3s.
You may not be there now (I started off with Mirage surrounds, backs and center) but hopefully you will enjoy the GEt sound enough to do as I did, when finances permit, and go with the same HVFR speaker/sound all around. It definitely is worth it, and the more full range the better.
Just sayin'
God Bless,
Wayne

Hey Guys,
Yeah, Steveo, we are not here to bash anybody's speakers/systems, but I think everyone here agrees with you!!!!!
I see Steveo that you have some good things coming together, but I never did hear if you figured out the suck out in the middle in direct mode problem?
Obviously with the new SC XXL you will not have any center problems in surround sound.
But is that problem in 2 channel solved? Did you ever try changing the wires around just to confirm it was not somehow out of phase? That problem can happen inside your receiver too, not just be a human error on your part (which in my case it could be).
Were you able to borrow another unit and listen?
Sorry, just wondering where we are with that.
RCAs can make quite a difference, and YES, there is a BIG law of diminishing returns as you said. Every little bit helps, so hopefully you are gonna get on top of it and get great sound that makes you happy, and hopefully, but less importantly, without having to EQ the heck out of things.
Just wishing you well in your quest, and checking in on you, God Bless,
Wayne

Hi Wayne
Thanks for the follow up. I checked the connections and everything seems to be ok. I did one of the suggestions and have purchased some new speaker wire. I couldn't find the ones suggested by members in the forum locally. However my dealer heavily recommended these ones the QED xt40. I have never heard of them but a quick google search brought me to the link
www.whathifi.com/qed/xt40/review

and based on the dealer telling me it should make a big improvement and seeing those awesome reviews I purchased on the spot on Saturday. It was more than I wanted to spend but I am sure the T1s are worth it. The dealer didn't have time to add the plugs to the wire so he said he would post them out this week. I still haven't got them yet so will chase tomorrow. I would be interested in hearing them in my system.

In regards to the sound he showed me an older Krell integrated amp S 300i playing in some b&ws (804s I think?) . I could tell if I had this in my t1s it would sound awesome. It's funny they were the same price as the T1s and I still prefer the sound of the t1s playing mp3s through my apple TV on a midrange recieved than this sounded playing high Def flac files on a $3.5 k integrated amp with a expensive high resolution music player. I was testing it to hear the overall power and I could tell Thai krell was driving these speakers in a big way. I enjoyed the sound however and dint feel the need to tinker with the eq and I couldn't because the amp didn't have any eqs so I know I should be able to get good sound out of the t1s with an amp like this with no eq abilities as this speaker while I prefer the triton still sounded great with a lot of power.

He said a dedicated amp like this would be a good solution for me rather than buying a marantz preamp as the improvement s would be a lot more in a dedicated amp. This amp is only 150w per channel but it is class a/b compared to my emotiva xpa5 which is class d. He assured me I would get better punch out of the krell at 150w compared to my 200w emotiva. I liked the sound of the krell s300i for $3500 even compared to the new class a krell for about $8k. The dealer said you get a smoother more refined sound out of class A great for jazz and classicsl but you get more punch and power out of class A/b and I heard that and liked the cheaper amp even if cost wasn't a factor. For someone who lends to gravitate towards rock and metal A/b suits me great

He also thinks my source is a huge issue. I agree that the apple TV would be the weakest part of my system not just cause its mp3s but also cause the unit isn't made for high end systems and it is known to compress music even more. It's hard to describe but even when I play the t1s loud I feel that something is holding it back and it must be the apple TV. I still love the quality of the sound though. Movies as a comparison are full of power and punch.

I can only run apple TV through hdmi as well not analogue. I feel now that I am getting great sound out if my t1s (eqed) I just feel the overrall punch could be better and more open and uncontained. The apple TV is letting it down and I heard Yamaha's processors are great for movies (which I can attest to) and the picture quality is better also for TV but something like a marantz is better for music. Since my movie part is great I believe I could really step up the music with a dedicated integrated amp with HT bypass from a company like krell compared to another marantz or yamaha as an example.
I took what this guy was saying seriously cause he was a Yamaha dealer and marantz dealer as well. He thought for my purposes the $3500 krell with a HT bypass would be better for music compared to a av8802. He said you could then use the krell as a power amp but with the Yamaha settings for movies.

He said there would be no point getting this amp however until we sort out the source and the amp doesn't have hdmi and zinc couldn't test apple TV with it anyway.

Then I went back to my other dealer for goldenear that afternoon and picked up the XXL and got sidetracked with surround sound )

I think my next purchase is going to be the Sony hapz1 media player to fix up my source. Firstly because it is a pretty high end player and a lot of people say this is good value for money for a player that can play and up convert pcm to dsd as well. Plus I like having huge libraries on files rather than physical cds as I like jumping between music genres and now I am not a teenager I don't like having too many cds laying around cause we are in a unit.

I don't have an extensive high Def music collection and I don't have many flac files because I converted all my cds to mp3s year ago for my shiny new 40"gb ipod circa 2003

I like the Sony because they say it can make my mp3s sound better and I think it will be a huge upgrade to the Apple TV in terms of a player. It's probably worth about $2700 in Sydney here and I have just now basically committed to spending money on the xxl. I probably should have sorted my source out first but I had to try the xxl out

My next purchase will have to be the Sony to check out my 2 channel sound to see if it will be improved and then I will spend weeks converting my cds to uncompressed flac as well. I need to find a dealer who will lend me the Sony to try out. Feel free to give some feedback and sorry for the long post.

Hey Mate, the long post was great and thanks for explaining to me what all is happening.
It sounds like you are learning a LOT and getting some pretty good answers.
I think changing out the wire is a good thing, you did well, IMHO. I have tried QED and it was fine, and as you said, well reviewed.
Those RCAs and your new speaker wires will surely help.
I honestly cannot blame you for getting side tracked on surround sound. I am permanently side tracked!!!! I don't care much for 2 channel. Surround sound is REAL sound, just like real music in the real world.
So enjoy that and keep that as your reference.
I agree too that a new source will do wonders and should be your next move.
Seriously the Triton Ones deserve to be fed some great input. I believe that will make a LOT of difference.
Amplification is getting into a LOT more money and stuff and the returns are less obvious, IMHO. This will take you into the areas of nuance, and air and headroom. ALL that stuff is important, but you cannot return the air and nuance to a MP3 recording that has already truncated it and rounded it down to the lowest common denominator.
So again I agree with you, get your source playing some fine tunes and then lastly you can work on improving your amplification (pre-amp/processor and power amps).
Thanks Dude, I believe you are well on your way to sonic nirvana right there in your unit.
God Bless, Wayne

Steveo,

Your Emotiva XPA 5 is Class A/B. Don't let that dealer give you a run for your money.

emotiva.com/products/amplifiers/xpa-5

I would assume that the Class A Krell for $8k would make a difference but the Class A/B Krell for $3,500 will make a smaller difference IMHO as its A/B like the Emotiva you already own. Try to use your Emotiva with only 2 channels driven on your Stereo setup to see how it is.

Good Luck and Keep us Posted

Great point Aribraun! Thanks for pointing that out
All the more important for me to fix my source and then actually see what good quality components for music can do paired with the emotiva.

My ps3 is dying as well so it would be nice to see what an oppo could do as well even though I already have a separate standalone darbee unit already.