2B,
Interesting read, and I will give you that it doesn't take a ton of work or cash for that matter to upgrade to two channel amplification from multichannel amplification. But you may be missing the point, but then again maybe not.
At least in my instance, I never listen to two channel movies and I never listen to two channel music. My system does not do double duty, it only does multi-channel and this may be where we are starting to have a disconnect.
I am so set in my ways that given the choice of stereo or nothing, I choose nothing. The truth is I haven't listened to stereo since I bought my first Dynaco Quad SCA-80Q in 1972, then Pioneer Quad QX-949, with the cool ocilliscope and then Citation 2.0 and 4.0 and now Modded McCormack MAP-1 for the 5.1 music system with CLXs and the Sony STR 5300ES for the big 7.2 HT which is all ML speakers btw. I also have a Sony STR 5200ES 7.2 system with MLs in the master bedroom. Yeah, I know, but when you have multichannel syndrome, well it's a disease.
Myself and Jonfo may be a minority since we love multi-channel and put so much effort into it but hey its what we like and I am a firm believer in to each his own.
I do believe that I can hear a difference in amps, and there is no doubt in my mind that you and others can too and it is for that reason itself that it is important in my system to have all channels driven by the same amp. That way there is no discernable difference between the front and the back channels.
In my case, why would I want to have different amp on the front CLXs that sounds better/different from the amp that I have on the rear CLXs. You see that kind of messes with the experience, IMHO.
Now if you throw out the law of diminishing returns, yeah you can beat the Sunfire TGA 5400 or 7400 but at what cost? It all comes down to whether the cost justifies the perfomance, and even though I can spend alot on the amplification there is this little voice in my head that says, watch it she might find out how much you are spending on your audio addiction.
But that is a whole different discussion......back on topic.
I did do a demo of a Simaudio Moon Titan against the Sunfire 5400, based on Tonepub's recommendation and I did note enough of a difference that I spent double the money of the TGA 5400 to get the Moon Titan. So I am not blind to the fact that it can be done, but again at what cost?
And when I talk Sunfire amps and Martin Logans ESLs I am not talking 200 watt per channel used $1K Sunfires but rather 400 watt per channel in to 8ohm amps.
I have tried the 200 channel Sunfire amps and you can tell a big difference in their sound versus the 400 watt models, at least driving Martin Logans. I think it is a headroom thing. They just keep doubling down to 1 ohm at 3200 watts a channel and they run cool in the cabinets. Side Note, I used to have 125 watt class A Yamaha amps in the cabinets, but the wife kept asking me why she smelled wood burning. That gets old after a while, not to mention kind of scarey.
For the big 7.2 HT I have Stylos, Stage, Fresco i and subs driven by a Sunfire TGA7400, it does 99% movies and HDTV, with music only 1% of the time, but always multi-channel. It never runs out of steam and it runs cool as a cucumber.
As for the 5.1 music only system, its CLXs, Descent i and Stage (with the intent to sometime split a pair of used CLXs with Jonfo to swap out the Stage for an all CLX lineup) This is powered by a Simaudio Moon Titan, which replaced a Sunfire TGA 5400, because I could hear a difference and my brother needed the money more than the Titan. Like I said, sometimes you have to help a brother out, literally
This is all run through a McCormack MAP-1 that was modded by Steve McCormack to bring it up to his Virtual Machine pre-amp standards. I like it because I can take any two channel source and through Steve's Ambience Retrieval Mode (ARM) I can turn it into a very close approximation of DVD Audio or SACD 5.1 surround sound. Kind of like stereo on steroids.
In short, if you don't play pure two channel and you almost always play multi-channel then having the channels matched is a big priority and to do that without spending huge dollars and bumping up against the law of diminishing returns, the Sunfire multichannel 400 watt per channel amps are an easy decision, and I have found they are hard to beat without spending significant effort and AFC, Actaully fg Cash for those playing the home game. Can you go bigger and/or arguably better, heck yes, but at what cost?
You will note that I am not the most serious of posters here at MLC, yeah I have opinions like everyone else.....okay mine are a little more warped than most. But I also have several other hobbies/interests/passions/addictions and I have to split my time among all of them, which is getting harder and harder to do, anyways I do try to explain my positon now and then but since writing is not one of my strengths, it is kind of a crapshoot whether or not I explain myself well enough.
And that's my story and I am sticking to it?
