So it's been 10 days since I unpacked my amp. In my original post I had been listening in a 2-channel setup. That lasted three days (very enjoyable days!). After the third day, I broke down my old HT setup (Denon AVR 2113ci, 11 yr old Sony 5 disk CD player, a cheap Samsung Bluray player) to make room for my 240/3 amp, Nuforce AVP-18 pre/pro, and an Oppo 103. This is a 3.1 HT set up. I have rear surround speakers, but irreconcilable WAF issues forced me to reconsider their use for the time being.
Let me first say that I know each new piece is affecting the resulting sound quality, and I can't guess what % contribution there is, but HOLY ~_~_!! There is a huge difference in 2-channel music both from CDs and from the music saved to my computer thanks to the ethernet line hooked up to the Oppo. Videos (Netflix, DVD, Bluray) sound so much better. The center channel speaker suffers less resonance than it did before. The right speaker now sounds as if it is working
WITH the left speaker rather than fighting it. All three speakers deliver greater punch and increased clarity in the lower frequencies. The tweeters are considerably less bright than they had been with the Denon. I also relocated my subwoofer to the right side away from the left wall. (The right side is open to the kitchen/breakfast nook space.) The left-side placement seemed to swallow up the subwoofer whereas the current location fills the whole space with satisfying thunder.
Luckily, my wife doesn't know AC exists, so she won't know that I could actually live with the Paradigm monitors and center channel speaker if I absolutely had to....[I know. Don't go there.
] No. I must have better speakers for my HT system. Either our son will get the Paradigm speakers for his new apartment, or I will try to sell them here or elsewhere.
Kudos to AVA, Nuforce and Oppo for making my HT system shine.
Hey, Frank. Have you ever considered selling a three-channel 400R?....just wondering......
