I GIVE UP

Steve, the tube journey can be a fun one as well, if you are patient and into noodling.
I would strongly recomend purchasing a tube tester to validate your purchases BEFORE installing - this may help keep part of your sanity. Finding reputable sellers is another ENTIRE thread. Be careful, there's a lot of junk out there.

http://www.tubeman.com is a good place to start.

Also, contacting Balanced Audio would be another good to start. Here is the URL http://www.balanced.com/

Tube testers, http://www2.gdi.net/~padgett/hickok.htm has some good information that may also prove useful.

Good luck to you. From the sound of this post, I am sure that you have tried a bunch of new stuff already and this may be old news to you, but hey....
Good luck and enjoy!
Angela

Steve:

Sovteks get upgraded for a reason. And just cuz the tubes were furnished by Upscale doesn't mean they are necessarily Kevin's choice for that amp. Touch base with him and ask what he'd recommend. The man doesn't have the reputation he has for goofing up on stuff like this. Not that I have anything against any other vendor(s), in fact, I say ask 'em all for their recommendations, but for a one stop, quick and reliable answer, Mr Deal would be my call.

chas

Steve: I would say it is in your equipement. I've tried all kinds of amps with my martins. The best success was with the bat vk200 amp, the sound is awesome. I've owned the bryston 3bst and that was also good. But the bat is a perfect match. Preamp is the bat 3i. Prefect combo. As far as ht, I use the lexicon dc-1. Cables are the bottom line of transparent biwire. If you want more power the bat vk500 will do the job. But I've never tried the 500. I own the 200 and would not trade it for the world. as far as cd/dvd I use the pioneer elite dv 07(i think thats the model and it works perfect). I know u don't want to hear change cables, but the only ones I've had success with are the transparent. I tried nordost and they sound way to harst, or should i say ear piercing noise. This whole thing took me 2 years to get correct and I love it now. it drove the wife nuts, with all the amps, pre's, and cables in and out of the house, but now she love's the martin sound. Martins show the true identity of what their feed. But theys seem to love bat. I've tried the high end bat pre vk50, but did not have much success. So my recommendation is vk200, vk3i, if you do ht(lexicon dc1 and the pioneer elite dv f07) and for cables(sorry I know you don't want to hear this) transparent bottom line biwire and innterconnects. you won't be disappointed. good luck pete
if you have any questions, send me an email

Your electronics and your speakers are all very bright components. I hate to say this but the reason you wanted to give up is that there is really no way to solve your problem with the components you have. You're going to have to start over.
Go to a competent dealer and have him put together a system of well matched components within your budget. SORRY