.....yes, Nick, you are comparing in Receiver Land....but you name amps and pre-pro's also, as to having little impact on sound....Nick, that's the point you step into another level of presence, Sir....of course the room damping must be in order, or you won't hear much imaging, and there will be an overall raspy brilliance if your speakers "need" damping, and aren't getting it....at least that was what I noticed go away as the imaging improved greatly.....
.....edit....you may even enjoy the raspy brilliance for awhile, but it will probably eventually wear you down....the higher end stuff IS closer I'll admit, usually to the point you have to listen to something different for weeks sometimes to make a choice concerning amps....pre-amps are different....you can tell within a few minutes if you like one or not....but when you pull McIntosh vintage amps back out of storage, and all of a sudden the mains and surrounds are putting out "live presence" compared to what you've just been using, which was the Crown K2's and then the Earthquake, you only know what you know, now there it is....you can hear differences in pre's and amps most with a crappy signal like cable TV....if one pre and a certain amp produce the most pleasing results toward "live presence" using cable TV recorded on an S-VHS VCR to give constance with AB'ing, Buddy, the combo took on a challenge......
