Don't be so surprised! Your tale is not only eminently believable, it is to be expected if the high end is indeed truly a better way. I have experienced this increase in bass recovery phenomenom several times during the course of my system upgrade path, all with the same speaker (the speakers, Thiel CS2.2's, were the first things to be upgraded in this system). This has included DAC, cartridge, phono section, preamp, amp, and cable upgrades. All other things being equal (and excepting the high-efficiency, low-power contingent), less premium gear should always be inferior in wide-bandwidth high-performance capability. When it comes to electronics, power supply improvements alone will account for much of the superiority as it regards bass response in particular. There ought to be obvious reasons why we pay what we do for this stuff. Happy listening!