Beetle: Your electronics aren't the problem. Three things really matter: speakers, room, source material. If you like certain music, there's not much you can do about the last (though you owe it to yourself to buy a few XRCDs just to hear what good source material really sounds like). There are certainly a lot of speaker options out there that might sound better to you than the ones you've tried so far. Playing around with your room arrangement, damping first reflections, will also help. But part of what makes live music sound great is that it's live--and it's almost never played in a 12x16 room. So don't expect miracles.
How do you get the "real" feel of music?
There is a certain "real" feeling that I get when I go to a live concert. It's more of "feeling" the music instead of "hearing" it. That feeling, I think, comes from percussion instruments. I'd like to get that feel in my home stereo but it's not there. In my home, snare drums don't pop, I don't feel the bass drum in my chest, and rim shots don't exist. Is there a way to get that presence in a small system?
I'm not rich, and I don't want to hear, "Scrap all your sorry equipment and get a Krell, Bryston and HSU..." so with that in mind, I've got a 12x16 room with:
Sony DVP-NS500 DVD
JVC HR-S5900 VCR
Harman Kardon AVR80 II as a pre-amp
Parasound HCA-1205 power amp
I have used
Definitive Technologies BP-6
Polk Audio R40, CS-175, and PSW-250
Bose Accoustimass 5
Bose R-41
Is there any hope?
I'm not rich, and I don't want to hear, "Scrap all your sorry equipment and get a Krell, Bryston and HSU..." so with that in mind, I've got a 12x16 room with:
Sony DVP-NS500 DVD
JVC HR-S5900 VCR
Harman Kardon AVR80 II as a pre-amp
Parasound HCA-1205 power amp
I have used
Definitive Technologies BP-6
Polk Audio R40, CS-175, and PSW-250
Bose Accoustimass 5
Bose R-41
Is there any hope?