I found out again today just how important a good amp is. I've been pretty happy with my living room M5 and yammie sub driven through my 17 year old Denon. The bass wasn't the best but I figured the 500 I ordered would clean that up. The imaging and soundstage wasn't as terrific as my main system but I chalked that up to the room.

I decided to replace the Denon with my 9 year old Pioneer Elite A9 that was driving my Dreamcatchers and leave the sub out. That was 3 hours and more than 4 playlists ago.

I now have a smile on my face that won't go away. The images are razor sharp and soundstage width is wall to wall and 5 feet away from speaker boundaries - equal to my main system. Depth is there but not like my main system. Bass is deeper and tighter, mids are clearer and highs crisper. I hear two things on this system that I don't hear with my M100s, 800 and higher powered Onk: far more nuanced microdynamics/detail and more pop in the bass. I'm hearing stuff I've not heard before and it's significant. It's very satisfying emotionally. This tells me even though my Onk is beefy, it's not articulate enough.

I've said before the M5s need a sub for music but I take that back. What they need is good electronics. I don't need that 500 now.