Newbie System Question sort of long, sorry

Welcome to Audiogon and the high end audio world Jetson!

It's good that you know HIFI when you hear it, but the main thing is do you ENJOY HIFI when you hear it? The reason I ask this question is because in my opinion it's the goal of this hobby to assemble a system that you enjoy regardless of anyone else's opinion. Some people will tell you that an accurate system is the best and others that a musical system is better. But those ideals or descriptions are vague and really relative to the person listening. Other people can tell you what's good, but we all hear things differently, have different listening environments and varying budgets, so it really comes down to pleasing your own ears and wallet.

That being said, I still think it's a good idea to read magazines and online reviews to get an idea of whether a certain component might work in your system. And if in the article or review a comparison is made between two or three different speakers for example, it can give you an idea of how they sound relative to each other. Also, this forum is a great place to ask others that have experience with gear you're contemplating buying.

Looking at your system you sure don't look like a newbie. Before I'd go spending money on new gear I'd make sure both your listening environment and your speaker placement is optimized. I've certainly made the mistake of buying over and over again when it wasn't necessary. Make sure everything is set up as best as you can, then evaluate it. You'd be surprised what a little acoustic treatment or proper speaker placing might do for your system.

But the main question is, "how do you like the way your system sounds right now, and how would you like it to sound?" Once that question is addressed I think you'll get a lot of useful suggestions from the forum members here.

Good luck and enjoy!

Jetson, I hope you don't end up like Buckingham because he certainly went from newbie to diehard in a few short months. Heheh. Did you happen to take a look at his virtual system? A lot of time, research, money and labor went in to it.

OK, so you're looking for better lows and more sound envelopment. Actually, I've been on that very same trek myself. A few years ago I used Kimber PBJ interconnect and with the equipment I was using at the time felt it was a bit thin overall and tizzy up top. Changing to another inexpensive cable the Cardas Microtwin, transformed the character quite a bit. Highs became smoother and slightly rolled off, midrange and bass became fuller albeit a bit sloppy. I'm not sure if this is a move you'd like to make, but it's possible to affect the sound by changing an $80 interconnect.

If you're happy with the overall balance of the sound but want to add lower octaves maybe consider adding a sub. It does however entail more cost than replacing the PBJ and you also have the Wife Acceptance Factor to consider.

As far as sound envelopment I'd say experiment with speaker placement in relation to your listening position. Hopefully, if you can get it sounding better to the point your wife agrees, maybe she won't hassle you too much about the speakers being too obtrusive.