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It depends...

entirely on the power amp's design and execution and of course their prices plays a big role as well and will ultimately dictate the component's overall performance.

Case in point, I have had McIntosh, Audio Research, Classe, Bryston and Krell to me all of them offer a certain house sound, however, I found that the more money you spend on any one of them the closer you get to the real thing, performance wise. For example, I had the McIntosh 7200 at one time and as good as it was but it didn't fare well against the McIntosh MC2KW power amp that I auditioned. The Classe CA 300 power amp was excellent driving the Theil speakers, but it paled in comparison to the Classe Omega power amp. When I had the Audio Research D90B I thought I was in heaven driving my KEF 105/2 speakers, well that didn't last long when I heard what the Audio Research D-250 could do.

Anyway, last month I was at my local dealership who happens to be a good friend listening to Wilson speakers and Audio Research new offerings. The Wilson Alexia speakers sounded scary real to me driven by Audio Research Ref 250 power amp and Ref 5SE pre amp. During the audition, I kept looking over my shoulder to see if there were any more speakers in the room. BTW, the KEF Blade sounding just as good driven by Devialet 400 monoblocks that my friend had in a 10'X19' medium size room.

I once asked a good friend about his secret of assembling one of the very best sounding stereo system that I've heard. He told me flatly; "there's no secret as all I did was poured money into it"...at least he was being honest.



Edits: 06/27/16 06/27/16

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  • It depends... - kootenay 17:58:03 06/27/16 (0)

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