About a half an hour ago I was fiddling around with a Peavy PA amp I have. I decided to set it up and compare it to my Panasonic SA-HE100 receiver driving my Advent Smaller Loudspeakers (1977).
HERE is the setup I am listening to at this very moment.
All I can say si WOW! I cannot believe that I have been depriving my Advent speakers of their glory by running them on that el cheapo receiver. I had to turn the receiver all the way up in order to come close to the volume produced by the Peavy at less than 1/4 the way up. The sound from my receiver's amp is very thin in comparison and is really lacking in detail.
I conducted this "test" with the receiver in stereo mode, subwoofer set to "off", and mono signals going to both the receiver and the Peavy. This Peavy is anything but a top quality amp, though I believe it pushes about 140w into 4 OHMs.
With the Peavy driving the Advents there is no need for a subwoofer with music! None at all! When driving them with the receiver they are anemic without the subwoofer on. Oh how I wish this receiver had preouts. I'm getting more anxious by the second. I need an upgrade!