My 861 is here to stay. The Wilson's will stay for as long as I stay in my house. A bigger house might warrant some different speakers, but not yet.
800 series v1.6 Meridian has been added to accompany the 861 - one of the best pre-amps out there - never mind prcessors...no upsampling from the 800 as it's only v1. Makes ease of use much better as well as the sound!
I have now bought Kubala Sosna Emotion cables (interconnect and speaker) which I can't properly use (still!) as I accidentally blew my tweeters! So the Sonus Fabers are back at the front for the time being.
I did A/B of KS versus Virtual Dynamics and *in my system* there was a clear winner - KS. Imaging is now some of the best I've heard. Not qutie the openess I heard with the VD Revelation cable, but I could not get it to image well at all. However in my dealers (halcro pre/power plus Acappella High Violins) system, the difference was much less clear cut - it depends on so many things - they are both good cables!
New cabinet has taken away the DIY feel to the system and new heavy curtains have done wonder for imaging and sound overall.
Great system. It must sound awesome. I fully agree with your comments about using a good DSP preamp for both stereo and HT applications. The elimination of an additional high end dedicated preamp for two channel audio is very practical. DSPs can do a lot to optimize your room for HT applications ...so why not for stereo sound too. A quality multichannel preamp can be just as good for two channel as the best of them.
