My Dad has been running an older Yamaha preamp and amp combo with a set of Infinity floor standers. It was a great sounding, if a little bass heavy, system. The Yamaha he was running was powerful and clean. A few weeks ago he bought some Klipsch Forte II's and a McIntosh preamp and amp. He had the speakers a few days before the amp so he tried them with the Yamaha and didn't like the sound at all. He said it was unpleasant and kind of harsh. When he hooked up the McIntosh he loved it with the Klipsch. He said he's done. Everything but the McIntosh and Forte II's is going on CL. Two solid state amps with similar power output and completely different sounds through the same speakers because the Yamaha was designed to run as cleanly as possible while the McIntosh was designed to sound like the McIntosh tube amps.