my goal in home audio has always been simple, to have the best possible sound for the least amount of money. considering that my system is primarily only enjoyed by me, i don't make purchases based upon brand names, or power ratings, pixy dust, or salesperson recommendations.i base my purchases on demos of components in my system. i post my observations here hopefully to assist others in their quest for outstanding audio in their home systems.
as for adding an amplifier to a receiver, all that i have demoed made a noticeable difference, compared to powering my speakers with the receiver alone. the rotel 1080 added a bright & forward presentation which was not present with the receiver alone, as did the nakamichi pa-5II. vocals, particularly female vocals, actually sounded worse than just using the receiver alone. the b&k ref 125.2 had a much better sound quality, not bright in the least, and had a substantial impact on bass response for my front speakers. moving to a cary audio 5 further improved the bass response, and also had an overall better sound, very clean, detailed, excellant seperation between highs, mids and lows, and fantastic vocals. unfortunately i had a noise problem which may or may not have been a ground loop that i was never able to get rid of. the krell showcase 5 in comparison was a black hole, you literally had to put your ear to the tweeter to hear it without any music playing. i also thought the showcase 5 had a more detailed sound quality than the cary, but would attribute a good portion of this to the noise problems i had with the cary. the cary had better bass response, and more umph than the krell showcase. the krell also sounded much better with my receiver, and the cary sounded much better paired w/ the cary cinema 6. i finally purchased a krell kav-2250 to power my fronts which i found new on a significant sale, as it did it all well, fantastic detail, clarity, & bass response. however, as i have previously stated in multiple posts, adding an amplifier to a receiver does make a noticeable difference, but the best sound quality i have achieved at home is using an amplifier with a pre-amp/processor. the cary combo of the cinema 5 amp and cinema 6 pre-amp was spectacular for music, and greatly exceeded the performance of using a receiver & and amplifier, regardless of the amplifier. same results were achieved with a anthem avm 20 i am currently demoing. price considerations aside, i would recommend the avm 20 over the cinema 6 based on it's myriad set up options & greater ability to customize, and for including xlr inputs/outputs. i have only been able to use the xlr outputs, but it did reduce the noise floor. however it would hard to go wrong w/ the cary ciinema 6, esp. considering the 900 dollar lower msrp.
the reason i started by adding an amplifier to the receiver was to see if it improved the audio quality, not simply so i could play at louder listening volumes. my denon receiver is fully capable of playing very loud. the other problem i had with the denon was i felt i had to listen at far louder levels than i was comfortable with before the music sounded full bodied, and this was not the case with either the cary combo or the avm 20/krell. both the cary combo & the avm 20/krell sound much better in analog direct than the denon ext in (with or without an amplifier), even with the denon pure direct option selected, significantly better bass response, better detail and excellant seperation between highs/mids/lows.
adding an amplifier to at least a denon 2805 can make a noticeable difference, although in some cases the difference was actually worse with the amplifier than without. the best was w/ the krell showcase 5 & the b&k. but with any amp, the sound quality is not what i have heard from seperates. i wish it were the case that there was no improvement, and i would then be more than happy keeping my receiver and could stop shopping and spending money. but there is a significant improvement over the 2805 in music quality by using seperates. does this hold true for all receivers, i don't know, and can only comment on what i have experienced in hours upon hours of listening at home. i have never tried to justify why there is a difference in sound quality, that is better left to persons with better technical expertise than i possess. i listen to music, and report what i hear, and last time i checked that's what were all here to do, improve the quality of our home audio & video experience.
