Denon AVR x1500h - Polk T50+sub or Canton gle 490.2(+more questions)

Wikedlok

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Hello to everyone,

I'm a novice Hi-fi/AVR enthusiast (on a budget), needing some help with my audio choices :). EDIT: sorry for the long post - alotta help, it seems. I packed it all in, not to go around the whole forum.

Ok, so I have the above mentioned AVR and a pair of T50s. They sound good, but lack a bit of oomph. Was looking to expand to 5.1, first sub, then central, then sats. Fortunately a friend gave me his Yamaha HT speaker set, which is probably sth basic you can get at walmarts or similar chainstores, 40 w sats and a 50 w sub. I'm aware of the quality, so no issues there. The sub XO to 60 for mains, 100 to the rest.
My main interest is music (extreme metal, jazz), HT second.
Planned to gradually replace Yamaha pieces, starting with sub - found a good offer for Canton AS 85.3 SC at ~260 dollars ( CANTON AS 85.3 SC SUBWOOFER weiß ), then adding Polks from the same series. (Oh, I live in Croatia, so some brands easy to get in USA are not available here, also Amazon shipping anything that heavy would cost at least 400 bucks.)
Then on the same site I found Canton gle 490.2 towers ~550 dollars pair( CANTON GLE 490.2 Schwarz ), which seem much better than Polks. If I sell Polks and add the money planned for sub, i have the Canton towers.
So the dillema is:
a) Would I gain more from having Polks and a Canton sub ( + gradually T series fill in)for all around usage or
b) Buy Canton towers and only use the old Yammy sub when in HT mode, to ease the strain on AVR with the rumble ( + gradually T series or if my wife doesn't cut me in my sleep, sth better fills in+ a better sub at some point)
c) Canton towers are 4-8 Ohms, which Denon says is ok with, but how would that translate into real life? Actually this is my main worry, prob would go for them immediately if they were 6 Ohms.

I usually don't go to volumes over 60 for music, usu ~51 just to turn off the auto eco mode. Some movies unfortunately demand higher volumes, which a thorn in my paw - some are great at 52 or below, yesterday I watched a DVD which sounded lame at 60 ( is there a fix for this??).

Also, will acoustically treat my living room with DIY rockwool panels, corners with 10cm, walls and ceiling 5 to 10, a rug in front of mains.

Then... what is it with my ears??? Direct mode sounds really lame to me, while I would expect sound to shine or whatever, it seems to throw a wet towel over speakers. I'm using hdmi from laptop and PC, listening to FLAC mostly over Foobar or Winamp( EQ flat or a slight V shape ), have some 24 or 36 bit albums, but it just sounds poor opposed to stereo ( EQ flat or a slight V shape ). And Denon says "Press PURE to select “Direct”" and "Press PURE to select “Pure Direct” , while I get only Direct. My display is OFF , but if I turned it on, also no Pure direct.

I apologize for the long post again; I would very much appreciate all input and reasonable advice.

Thanks in advance!
BR
 

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