[Grayson73]

I am running high-sensitivity Silverline Sonatinas with my XR55. Previously, I had the XR50. The XR55 fixes my gripe with the XR50 in terms of soundstage. The 50 had detail and dynamics but was little flat sounding. The XR55 greatly addresses this issue. Bi-amping adds little bit more clarity and surprisingly better bass as well - drums seem tighter.
With bi-amping and a good digital source, I think the Xr55 could be competitive with $1k Int. Amp and $500K players (my previous Int Amp was a Audio Refinement Complete) as long as the speakers are not very current hungry.

What makes the XR55 sound different than the XR50?  Are there different TI chips?

[Feisal K]

there are different TI chips - or rather different generations of TI Equibit/PurePath chips. having said that I don't know which one the XR50 uses

[Grayson73]

Here are some pics of the internals courtesy of mad3d on avsforum.

Can someone who knows the XR50 and XR55 interpret the differences?

http://www.gemsgenethics.com/xr57/

[Folsom]

Perhaps after it burns in some you could put it back onto the other HT to give it a whirl? The sound might change, a lot.

I noticed some Panasonic capacitors in there, it looks like they might of payed some attention to detail   .