can a new amp amp tame my speakers?

Wow, with all that change going on, I think I would concentrate on getting your Oppo and 5 pr of decent interconnects to hook up proper analog sound from the Oppo to your amp. I had a flagship for its day Yamaha rxv1 that still plays my center and rear speakers in my set up. Your Yamaha amp should suffice for home theater. The ps3 is great for movies and Internet connection, and doesn't have to be replaced by the Oppo--depends on you! We use a ps3 for our mid-Fi home theater set up and are fine with it. But the Oppo should kick its butt on music playback--superior drivers all the way around. We reserve our Oppo for the separate audiophile setup/music playback.i
Once your Oppo is in place, your "source" 2.1 playback will be about as good as you can get. If there is still harshness, then a 2.1 amp would be my next purchase. Because speaker wires work in synergy with amps and speakers, I would upgrade them after your amp or speaker purchase. If you find your playback greatly improved with the Oppo and are almost there, then keep your amps and speakers and grab some better quality speaker wires for your front two or three (center) speakers. If harshness remains, save for a decent 2.1 amp.
I am no expert. But that is what I would do. Start with the source and work outward.
Btw, I use an hdmi cable from my Oppo straight to my tv for picture for my music DVDs. I use analog cables from the Oppo to my Yamaha and from the Yamaha thru my kw500 for fronts. Sounds heavenly.
When we bought our Yamaha, we bought some laid-back Vienna Acoustic speakers to tame any harshness. Worked pretty well. But the tube amp made them reallllllly shine. I have seen vienna acoustic mozarts go for crazy cheap prices on the Gon. If you get viennas, I can vouch that MITs are a crazy good synergy. My VA Beethovens do well. Someday I will upgrade from there, but for $500 for used MIT 750s I get $2k in performance. I am not ready to spend the $3k to better them yet.
Btw, for our rear speakers in our midfi TV room, we still use the 16 gauge monsters!! But if you find some better speaker wires super cheap, you can always grab them for your front right and left. Buy a brand name used that you know you can turn around and sell later. It will improve your sound. Don't buy cheap silver interconnects or speaker wire with the Yamaha. Your ears will bleed!!!
My two cents!
Deb

Thanks!! I must confess to reticence to dive into the cable abyss. Deb, This all started with a ? about would an upgrade from my old Yamaha outboard amp improve the sound of my speakers. After much talk and advice, I got an Odyssey Stratos used here on the 'gon. The difference has blown my mind! The initial problem has been largely, though not completely eliminated. Hence the follow up about cables and interconnects. Currently the setup is: PS3, Yamaha RXA3010, Odyssey Stratos, Infinity Kappa 7's.

Deb's recommending MIT, Tara, Silnotes as starting points to look at. I guess the next question is how do I sort through the options each brand has. Each step up will have advertised benefits that may or may not provide an audible improvement. Each will claim the last word in accuracy, whereas through forums like this I'm detecting, much like with any other component, that each has a 'house sound' to some degree - the consensus so far is Monster tends to be bright, MIT less so, for example. Acman3 likes the Reality..

No work for me today, have to use that time better by surfing the net for the Holy Grail!! :)

Thanks All.

Acman3 - good point about common sense and rationalization..I'll work on that... ;)

English 210, in your shoes, I would go read reviews on your amp and speakers. When there is a great review, note what interconnects and speaker wires they used.
There is a diminishing return on cost/fidelity. Set your budget and stick to it. For our system, I put our finest Tara interconnects in the vinyl setup.
Our second tier still sound mighty fine for DVDs and CDs.
A shoot out in my kids' system gave the MITs interconnects an edge over Silnotes for linearity, and extension. He has a cary tube amp and a sony bluray player. Silnotes will close down the top a bit, which might be just what you want. I bought mid-tier Silnotes when he offers them on super sale on the Gon($100-200 each). His highest stuff is crazy good but prices are wayyyy up there. A matter of system matching.
I searched eBay and Gon for MIT interconnects used. Bought m1s for about $600 a pair. A steal for $1800 interconnects. I was going fir synergy with the speaker wire which i already had. Someday, i will step up to Tara speaker wires.
In your research, find what works with your amp and speakers, then buy them on the cheap. Or buy a generation or two back, if you dont mind not having the latest/greatest. Patience served me well. If you get the Oppo, you will need several prs of analog interconnects, if you are a purist, for sacds.
If you are using the 16 gauge monsters on your front speakers,start changing there!! You might get rid of the glare with a decent set of speaker wires.

Happy shopping.

good idea on the reviews, but not useful in my case with 25 year old speakers...unless I go with the 'house sound' theory. Whatever wires they used then are long since discontinued. For the AVR to amp interconnects that should be doable.
I do get the diminishing returns bit. $600 for a pair of ic's makes me swallow hard, but I get your point. Guess I better keep working to pay for all this, huh?
Thanks

English, set your budget and stick with it. If $200 is your IC limit, there are great used ICs out there worth several times that that will make your system sing.
I get your point with the older speakers. But read up on the amp. You may find some synergy info from the pros out there. Ask the guy you bought your amp from what ICs and speaker wires he used. Find out what speakers/wires other Gon-ers use w their identical amps.
Read up on ribbon tweeters and what ICs pros or Gon-ers used with them.
By the time you do all that research, you will have saved for some great wires. Haha!
Call your speaker manufacturer and ask what brand of wires they recommend.
Ask your Hifi guy to demo some wires in your price range. Do not stretch above your price limit because you won't want to let them go! Haha!
I did that with AQ and found I definitely did not like silver with my Yamaha amp. Great extension, but too hot.
I REALLY like MITs interconnects with my OPpo 95.

When I jumped into MITs, I bought a spool of their 4-conductor wire used in high end home theater installations. My future son in law terminated them. I still use them for my rears in my audiophile setup, and they sound great. Even that wire beat $200 monster speaker cables for linearity, extension and neutrality. Monster bloats the mids and sounds "warmer", but I had to turn my knobs down because so much more info was coming from the bass and the highs!!
Once my ear adjusted to a more neutral sound, I knew I was on the right track. Like I said, I found some decent older MITs and picked them up for my fronts and center when I found crazy good deals, and replaced the installation wires. My $200 monsters went into my home theater and I retired the monster 16 gauge wire from the fronts and center speakers there.
If you buy a name brand like kimbers, MITs, nordost, AQ, and stick around the $200 range for used interconnects, you can easily resell anything that doesn't work for you!