What is your take on Def Tech XTR60's?

Wow. Just looked at the Emotiva XPA-5 along with the UMC1. The Marantz I was going to buy would have costed me $1600. For less than that I can get these two Emotiva units and have even better power output and clarity. Thank you for suggesting this Robert. I think Im going to go down this route instead.

The UMC-1 is a great processor, but it was plagued by firmware issues for quite a while. I bought mine after that all died down and it replaced a Onkyo processor that cost 3 times more.

The UMC-1 matched the Onkyo for HT duties and sounded better in two channel mode for music, so I find it to be a homerun. Emotiva is about to release a much more expensive unit in about 1-2 months.

Adding an amp to your reciever will give you more power and perhaps some perceptable sonic improvements, especially for dynamics. But the pre-amp section of your reciever will still control much of the sonic character. Having owned several good recievers from Marantz, Outlaw, and Denon my experience is that they run out of steam easily.

Robert

The Emotiva stuff is pretty good, but audiophiles have usually considered it better suited for home theater usage. With that said I have on many occasion used the Emotiva amps and UMC-1 for 2 channel music and I think it does a very nice job, certainly better than any receiver I've owned.

It does not compete with my Merlin/Manley system, but that cost over 15K on it's own.

Robert

I have a studio apt so I cant add too much audio equipment as room is limited. My a/v equipment is stuffed in one of my closets. Hence why I was looking at replacing the receiver and not adding too much bulk. I will add the amp to the receiver as you suggested as the Denon does run out of gas at high volumes and shuts down. Ill have to take baby steps I see before I get to where I want to be sound-wise.

Thanks for your advice and recommendations. I have so many questions but I think Ill hunt down the answers instead of being a pain lol.

BTW I just looked at your system. My goodness. That is a home theater/audio heaven. Very very nice.

My own experience is that I have never heard any Def Tech speakers that don't make me want to run out of the room. The highs are piercing, etched and bright, to the point of pain, and drowning out frequencies just below the treble. That said, I have winced when hearing these, but right next to me was someone who thought they sounded terrific. I tend to be very sensitive to any emphasis or distortions in the upper-mids and lower treble. Others are less sensitive. I think that's probably why they are so polarizing. To be fair, I never heard them with really top flight electronics, but rather the mid-fi stuff they usually get paired with, based on their price. Note that the glowing reviews in the press come from reviewers hooking up Def Techs to very good reference-quality electronics.