I convinced my wife that we need to upgrade the Music fidelity kw550 integrated to a component Pre amplifier and power amp. The deal is that I will purchase the new equipment if there's a noticeable improvement in sound. The proposed replacement equipment
1. Pre-Amp: Hovland H100
2. Pass Labs X350 power amp
3. Cord Cordette qute HD DAC
4. Tannoy D900 speakers
We picked a referance song and listened various times on the Music fidelity kw550 and the Hovland/PASS x350 combo.
My dilemma is that we could not notice any improvement in the sound!!! On the contrary the kw550 with 629 watt per channel sounded livelier.
The interconnects from Hovland to x350 was not balanced since the Hovland does not support xlr. I am testing ARC preamp next week with balanced interconnects. Don't know how big a difference that will make.
My dilemma : How does one justify spending all that money for no a obvious reason besides wanting it because it looks good. There Is no real point to this thread besides getting it off my chest because I sooooooo wanted that beatifull Pass X350.
1. Pre-Amp: Hovland H100
2. Pass Labs X350 power amp
3. Cord Cordette qute HD DAC
4. Tannoy D900 speakers
We picked a referance song and listened various times on the Music fidelity kw550 and the Hovland/PASS x350 combo.
My dilemma is that we could not notice any improvement in the sound!!! On the contrary the kw550 with 629 watt per channel sounded livelier.
The interconnects from Hovland to x350 was not balanced since the Hovland does not support xlr. I am testing ARC preamp next week with balanced interconnects. Don't know how big a difference that will make.
My dilemma : How does one justify spending all that money for no a obvious reason besides wanting it because it looks good. There Is no real point to this thread besides getting it off my chest because I sooooooo wanted that beatifull Pass X350.
