Success!
This morning I moved the active subwoofer off the pre-amp’s second SE output and onto the Stereo 100’s speaker outputs. At the same time I flicked the Stereo 100 back to Triode mode. From my audio spares box I’d retrieved a pair of Harmonic Technology Pro Silway II interconnects that I used many years ago before moving to pairs of Audience Au24e, thinking that the silver Silways might provide a little more air and crisper leading edges. However, I decided not to put these cables in before I’d listened to the system with the subwoofer moved to high level connections.
I let the system warm up for about 20 minutes and then sat down to listen. WOW! This is easily the best sound I’ve ever had.
All of the minor niggles I mentioned in my opening post are gone. Leading edges are clean, quick, crisp and pure, dynamics are now excellent, there is additional delicacy and delicious-ness, presence is improved and everything just sounds more real, musical and emotional. These observations hold true across all genres. Listening to Rossini overtures revealed improved dynamics, a larger soundstage with better focus and minor details float up more effortlessly (eg. triangles during heavy passages) rather than being buried.
I really didn’t expect any of this as I’d put down the extra dynamics and "life" revealed by the CJ CA200 and Kinki EX-M1 integrated amps I tried as being due to their higher power. It now seems that a lot of it was due to the fact that they weren’t loaded down by the subwoofer as they didn’t have an SE output it and I had to use the sub’s high level inputs.
I feel like an idiot. I’ve used the Herron VTSP-3 for the last 10 years and always used the SE output for the subwoofer. Doh!
I feel like I could quite happily live with this level of performance as my end game. I have no interest in putting the Silways in now for comparison. If I had to absolutely nit pick, I could imagine that a top class, higher powered solid state amp might perhaps maintain even better separation during symphonic crescendos and deliver slightly tighter bass extension ... but ... what I’m hearing now is so good that I really don’t care and would not want to give up the benefits I’m getting across the rest of the frequency range in pursuit of that last 5% of bass performance.
I might play around a little cleaning up my AC power even further but otherwise I think I’m done for a while. :-)
