thanks for the replies!
the listening area is 12x12 maybe, although one half of one wall goes out to a kitchen; speakers are facing away from that general direction. i listen as close to reference as i'm up for it-- that movie was up to what i felt the sound effects and voices seemed realistically loud; which is to say relatively loud i imagine.
my audyssey settings used to be just basic- but they tended to concentrate the listening area to a sweet spot, i even ran 3 passes from different seats. turning on straight stereo mode, no eq, etc, helped the listening environment a lot and soundstage actually expanded a tad, and imaging changed more for the better. the warm relaxed sound from multieq is now gone though
maybe ill sit down tonite and give audyssey a go again
..i initially went to stereo mode b/c i felt dialogue was rather unintelligible on other settings with most sources, including music at low to moderate levels; which made me think audyssey pulled the mids back so they don't peak and compress so easily; which is now what i think the speaker is naturally doing (albeit somewhat rarely). mostly that one scene in harry potter just astonished me, it sounded really bad in my opinion.
i am switching jobs to one that pays almost twice as much, so i'm gonna pop over to the checkout and order another 340 i think
ultimately i'd like some serious front channels, but that's still a bit far off i think compared to all the other things i've promised to treat myself to the last few years haha
if you think 340's upfront wont really make matters better, let me know anyone/everyone-- maybe ill hold off and just save for some sierra-1's.