Dear Pokey, Thanks a lot.
That is one of the thing I preach is to work on creating synergy.
Way too often in this community people are advised to switch x y or z when sometimes all it take is a simple cable swap, adding a power conditioner or some other accessory is all that is required to make a system work
When I do a tunning session I bring in multiple power cords, Acoutic System Resonators, Vibration control products and a couple of Audio Magic power conditioners as well as a few other products.
You would be amazed by how much improvement you can get by adding some of these types of tunning products and sometimes repositioning a set of speakers.
Our 2016 New York Audio Show setup the Paradigm Personas where nearly tounching the side walls and by opening up the sound stage and by using the right amount of toe in the system focused beautifully and sounded amazing.
Too many people are terrified to moving their speakers as wide apart as possible and worry about interacting with the side walls. The more pressing boundary is closer to the back wall which affects midbass coloration.
We used some Artnovium acoustic panels to damp the side walls and absorb some slap echo and boom we had some of the best sound at that show.
So sometimes going against conventional though can actually work well.
Pokey you should write a post extolling the great setup at that dealer I am sure he worked quite hard to find a setup that worked together well.
If you are ever in our neck of the woods please come in for a visit.
Here is a picture of our New York Audio show setup
https://www.facebook.com/122499304489958/photos/pcb.1632190780187462/1632198643520009/?type=3&th...
The moral of the story is too experiment and not just look at dogma. Most people who would have looked at this setup would have told me to move the speakers much closer together, yet we tuned the room to create one or two magic seats which is the best you could hope for in a hotel room.
I keep on waiting for the OP to chime in. I am dying to know the rest of his system.
Dave owner
Audio Doctor NJ