Craig -- Thanks & no worries. I know you raved about the SR7008 into your m100s, which was encouraging. Of course, that's two channels, not 9, but still. I'll be interested to hear if you feel that the m100s open up in a new way with outboard amplification, which I believe is part of your planned testing. At some point I'll want to do something like the Outlaw 2200 monoblocks on the LCR, but I get the impression this will be a great start.
Hansang -- the receiver will be networked, and it appears that firmware updates are offered automatically in this context. Is there more to your question?
TAM -- great story. Here's a couple more quotes for you. Take them to apply to my search for a receiver if nothing else!
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear. And disregards the rest.
The Heart wants what it wants - or else it does not care.
Side question: Any chance of some insight into your user name? I've been wondering for a while. Used to run sleds in the Yukon? Used to manage a research facility? Used to work at a kennel with chauffeur valet service?
Serenity -- Thanks for the link. Haven't digested it yet, but looks interesting. Interesting takeaway here in post 40 from Sonnie:
What I ultimately took away from this was that if I feel I need an amp to power my speakers outside of a receiver, which I do because I have clipped my AVR amp on my speakers, then I need to find the least expensive amp I can find with the minimum power I need... and call it a day. I personally see absolutely zero reason to spend a lot of money on an amp. That is no way implies the same will be true for you... I simply proved for myself what options are best for my ears.
Seems like a reasonable zeroth order approximation to the answer. There are real reasons for wanting dynamic headroom, and substantial power reserves, but within the regime of clean power, and when peaks are not being clipped, there will be many more similarities than differences. This is probably where I'm at. And, it is in keeping with my intended upgrade path: Modestly priced monoblocks that offer very substantive improvements in power capacity, and the ability to run hot into low impedance loads while keeping the THD distortion down. And they're balanced (at least on the inputs) to boot.
That opinion is not taking into account tube amps, etc., which are *supposed* to color the sound to some degree, and therefore seem to fall into the regime of personal preferences with regards to desirability of the particular sonic impact. BTW, in my guitar rack, there is a Mesa-Boogie tube preamp feeding a Marshall tube power amp. There is nothing in the world that sounds like a high end tube amp for guitar, other than the real thing. The tone churns and chugs, and glistens -- its alive. But, for electric guitar, the amp is *part of the instrument*, not intended as just a passive mechanism for adjusting the volume level.
Socket -- was that supposed to be a crack at my Avatar?
