I recently replaced my 18 year old Pioneer SX-303 with a NAD C740. I did it because one of the channels on the Pioneer had gotten cranky, but to my surprise, both treble and bass performance were vastly better using the NAD. I had always thought
watts were watts, but either all watts are not created equal or my "vintage" Pioneer has gotten very tired after years of service. See if you can borrow a fairly good fairly new amp from a friend or from a store. You may have interesting (and expensive!) results.
