I was thinking the sub or the center speaker. I was wondering which of the two would be a better choice. I love the EMP E5tis, but I have always had my doubts about the center. I was just looking for some opinions.
Before you posted this, I would have said your subwoofer should be upgraded first.
Since you are unhappy with your center channel, I suggest you try an experiment. Move one of your EMP Impression E5Bi speakers into the center position (keeping it vertical), rerun your calibration, and listen to that. If you are still not happy with the sound coming from the center, then most likely, you will be looking at replacing all of your front speakers if you want things to be good in the front. They should all match very well, or it will not sound right (though many people seem happy with things not matching or sounding right). And that means if you move to a different line of speaker for the center, you will be needing to replace all of your front speakers to have them all match.
What is it about your center speaker that you do not like?
Frankly, if there is a problem with the sound from it, there is a good chance that there is a problem with the sound from the other speakers as well, as they appear to use the same tweeter and midbass driver as all of the other speakers in your system. Of course, it could be that EMP screwed up the crossover just in the center channel speaker, but I doubt it. And it may be that you just don't notice the problem in the other speakers because they tend to be fed a very different sort of signal. If the center speaker isn't good with dialog, for example, there is a good chance that all of your speakers are not good for dialog.
Of course, your problem (whatever it is) could be something other than the speaker. You might need to deal with room acoustics, depending on how things are in your room. If, for example, when you clap your hands, you hear a slight echo, like when one is in an empty room, then you need to add things that absorb sound if you want your system to sound right. Almost anything would help for such things, including carpets, curtains, a plush sofa, bookcases filled with books, etc. An echo can make dialog less clear, and if that is your problem, replacing the center speaker will not fix that.
While I am at it, I would not bother upgrading the receiver, amplifier, or BD player,
EVER, unless there is some new feature that you absolutely need, or one of them fails (or, in the case of the amplifier, you end up with speakers that require better amplification, which is unlikely to ever be the case, but is however possible). You will not be getting substantially better picture or sound by replacing any of those, as long as they are functioning properly.
Fundamentally, if you have a problem with the way things sound, you need to be looking at room acoustics, speaker positioning, and if neither of those fix your problem, you need to look for different speakers, likely expensive ones.
And fundamentally, if you have a problem with how things look, you need to calibrate your TV and control the light in your room, and if that does not take care of things, you need to look for a new TV.
Notice, the BD player, receiver, and amplifier are not part of either potential issue, as long as they are functioning properly, have all the features you require, and have adequate power for driving whatever speakers you have.
