"You have no idea what you are missing man! The shift from my HT processor, to even a cheap tube preamp (a stock MAD 4SE), was shocking! The dynamics, the 3D sound...."
I hear this all the time but I am not convinced. I recently changed my set up to include a Denon AVR-100 and the BD-A100 blu ray player. They are connected via Denon link iv so i am not using HDMI.
This set up provides an incredibly wide, 3-D soundstage, a huge bubble of sound that emanates from the front of the room. Now, I haven't done a direct A/b comparison but I do like to have the room correction and bass management as part of the package. I do suspect that the difference between a good pre-amp and the Denon as a processor might be there, but not as amazing as some suggest.
Of course, part of the package is my U70 driving the front speakers. After many years of a high level of satisfaction with my Infinity IM 4.1 I came into some cash and decided to go for something new.
I picked up a pair of Volent Paragon VL-2 stand mounts. I am driving them very nicely with my U70. Even though the sensitivity is not nearly so great as the IM 4.1 i get very satisfying levels, maybe greater than with the Infinities.
However, the Infinities I drove full range with the U70, they have built in sub amps so the majority of the load was handled by them but they were still being driven bu the U70. the Volents I cross over at 80 hz so the U70 is bandwidth limited, it really seems to have a lot of ooomph when set up this way. I have a pair of VMPS smaller subs that I drive with a stereo 250 watt SS amp.
The ribbon tweeters are nice and mate well with the U70 but what really surprised me was the new definition and detail I get in the bass, lots of tone that I hadn't heard before.
Was listening to the MoFi of "The Yes Album" last night, a quite remarkable bubble of sound projected into the room, wall to wall.
I am sure more watts might get me better dynamics, but right now it will play as loud as I could ever want (or that my wife will allow me).
yep, still love my U70 and am somewhat surprised at how well it drives the Volents, at least from 80 hz on up.
