Dave and others:
I had a really good "AHA" moment yesterday regarding the speaker cells. After a bunch of brainstorming, Elliot(SR)and I, with the assistance of nautical Ted, figured out that the main reason I wasn't getting good performance out of the speaker cells was that the 48" bi-wire pigtails of my Apex speaker cables were not also connected to the speaker cells. They were basically acting as antennae and also robbing the speakers of full signal.
When I connected all 4 speaker leads to the 2 terminals on the speaker cell (pretty awkward with spades), the sound changed dramatically for the better. I now have bass again as well as midrange and the glare in the highs I had been hearing is pretty much gone. I will be replacing the 48" bass leads with 16" leads tonite, which should hopefully give me a bit stronger bass response, due to a potential loss of some current with the longer leads. I will post results as soon as I have a chance to set both speakers up and listen.
Currently, I have only got 1 speaker hooked to the speaker cell. The other has the Apex bi-wire on it and is relatively difficult for me to get behind. I am playing all types of music like this, as it is the easiest way for me to hear differences in the lows, mids and highs, of course making allowances for the signals not being identical. (Another benefit of mono amps ;-)). The dogs think I'm playing with them, as I bounce from speaker to speaker. I am hearing positive differences out of the speaker cell side so far, as the positives from before have not gone away, but most of the negatives have.