Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners QS8s vs. ERD-1 vs. FXi A4 vs. ADP-590

Yeah, what JohnK said, especially about the level matching. The salesperson was either stupid or deceitful. "louder" always sounds "better", and there's no way that the amount of gain between those amps was coincidentally exactly the same.

+2 to what JohnK and Tom said. However, if the system was properly level matched you may have still noticed some slight differences ie. cleaner, crisper sounding at louder levels vs. the receiver's amp section. I have noticed this change and felt the mid bass punch was better with separate amps vs my Denon 3808's amps. You have to figure out your own cost of diminishing returns point is to justify going with separates, IMO, for me right now my 3808 is just fine.

Okay, went back with the ol' SPL meter and regulated the actual output (decibels) between watching the main clip on the THX DVD I ordered for testing. I still noticed clearer dialog and brighter high tones, the enriched fullness of the music and speech was noticeable. The amped setup, without adjustment, was louder (in decibels) so it had to be turned down to compensate. But, even when adjusted, the loud sections sounded better and I could understand even the quietest dialog without effort on the amped setup.

I closed my eyes and let a friend freely switch back and forth between the amped setup and the A/V Receiver alone and I was eight out of ten in guessing which was the amped setup. (He would pause the scene, sometimes switching it, sometimes not, adjusting the volume accordingly to keep the decibels the same).

Again, great points and suggestions. I'm learning so much as I go hear, this has been awesome.

The point to be emphasized relating to your report is that the amplification process contains no mechanism which would make dialog clearer at actually equal sound levels.