My 21 year old son is graduating from a business college this spring. He is very in to HT/audio. He has a Yamaha rxv-496 receiver, PSB 5t's as mains, a PSB sub he is very happy with, some small BA surrounds and a rat shack optimus center channel. I would like to help him upgrade his set up. Should I do something about the receiver, such as add am amp, if possible. Or add a matching PSB center channel? Would it be bad timberwise to mix in an axiom center channel into this conglomeration? He would like to keep the 5t's as his mains.

I have been contemplating the m60's as mains and the vp150 center. But, he seems to be happy with his PSB's.

littleb,
If he is happy with the PSBs, then i say buy him some electronics.
There is no point in giving him something he apparently does not want, which is new/different speakers. Unless of course he is open to that idea of a nice large set of custom finished M80s.

You don't mention his television. That is a possibility. The center speaker is definately the weak point in his sound system. Axiom makes a great one, but PSB makes a couple of excellent ones as well. Good hunting.

littleb, if he is really into audio, why not just have a conversation rather than surprise him with something he may not want. Tell him how proud you are that he is graduating, tell him the amount you want to spend on a gift, fence it off to speakers/electronics and make it a Dad / son adventure.