can a new amp amp tame my speakers?

English210, Don't try to use common sense, it just confuses us. I might add that your Rationalization skills will need to improve if you are going to get those $$ interconnects.

I would go for better wire if you can pull that off, and keep your wife happy. It can always be resold. I will let other experts help you with wire recommendations, but I used Reality Speaker Cable when my system was bright, and Audioquest Type8 was really warm to me. Also Anti- cables worked well on one system and were terrible on another. The cable abyss.

@ english210,Do not be suprised if the bigger room improves your sound,I am banking on that it will!,you do need better cables!,take your time!,we all buy a little at a time,I am not rich!,I have been building my main system for a year now,and still building it!cheers!

Ah--your question of choosing appropriate interconnects and cables...
My future son in law who led us back into vinyl after 10 years away, is an avid audiophile. His rule of thumb-- speaker wires should be 15 -20% of the cost of your speakers. If you double the cost of your speakers to minimally account for inflation, you might be looking at $600-800 for speaker wires. Interconnects--his rule of thumb is buy a good name brand used set for $200 or so. That gets you about 80-90% of audiophile wires. You can but cheaper for interconnects that feed your rear speakers.
He likes kimbers, nordost, MIT as his go to interconnects. If you want to tame harsh highs, Silnote interconnects are designed to do that, and have sweet mids. If you stay with solid state, choose copper wires. Do not buy $100 silver wires--your ears will bleed!!
We bought some Tara interconnects for our vinyl setup--superb!!! They are VERY neutral and will show you if there are flaws in your setup. So don't buy them if you don't love your amp and speakers.
We own Tara's, MIT, AQ, and silnotes. I have some monsters in my home theater setup. Just move them away from your front 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... ;)