Help a new guy get started

Very nice. Congratulations! Consider biamping those speakers down the road, since you have the capability. Borrow an extra amp sometime and set up a simple passive biamp situation (Decco2 powering the tweeters and a two-channel powering the subs). You may like it enough to drop some extra change on a reasonable craiglist find.

I remember grading papers in grad school. What do you teach, if you don't my asking?

A_ cross,

If you're already yearning to be enveloped by your music, you better start saving your spare pennies. ;-). Sounds like you've got a good ear. As long as you keep it perspective (lol), you've got a lot of years of listening pleasure ahead of you....hi-rez is the new golden age and it's a great time to be entering the hobby.

Poprhetor, I teach AP Language and Composition to high schoolers as well as film. However, since I am in public education, I've taught quite a bit from beginning trumpet (yes, I knew what I was doing) to all levels of English. I'll keep the suggestion in mind about the biamping.

Vhiner, I don't know if you'd call it a good ear, but it has to fit what I think is good where I am in this journey. I know what a trumpet should sound like and I know that Terrence Blanchard, Wynton Marsalis and Charlie Schleuter all have different sounds even though they all play really expensive Monette trumpets. I can tell more subtle differences now that I couldn't with my original set up that serves as a HT.

Allen,

I've been listening to high end audio for nearly 20 years and am not a dealer nor do I have any friends who sell equipment. That said, the very best and most cost-effective improvement I ever made was the jump to Shunyata power cords and conditioning. I say this because of your comments about wanting accurate representation of instruments. Down the road, consider buying a used Hydra conditioner and power cord. Because this improves everything you plug into it, the bang for the buck is staggering. Of the half dozen friends I've convinced to try it, none have ever looked back. Consider this: when you turn your stereo on, you are actually listening to electricity. All audio equipment manipulates electricity. Serious improvement of source electricity results in a serious improvement in the sounds you perceive. Until you replace the stock power cords in your system, you won't really know what it's capable of. The most recent issue of The Absolute Sound has an interview with Shunyata's founder if you're interested learning more.