I really felt that it improved the quality of the sound I was getting from my fronts. It sounds kind of strange but the one thing I noticed while watching movies was the silence. It's kind of hard to explain but for example,in the the extended version of LOTR where Frodo is reading in the woods prior to Gandalf's arrival sounded sweet. The birds chirping in the background, the wind blowing through the trees made me feel like I was there. When the fellowship was awaiting the balrog's appearance it was so eerily quiet it sent chills up my spine.I didn't add the amps to try to beef up my "loudness" I added them to attempt to make every sound as realistic as possible. I don't know all the spec and mathematic decibal equation gobbeldy gook but I know what I like. In my case the addition of the Parasound amps improved the sound reproduction. It also made my 2 channel music sound much better. Any acoustic music sounded great. So in the end I would say do what you like, for me the amps were a welcomed addition to my system.
J
