Parasound A21+ vs MF M8 500S vs Cary 200.2 ES vs Hegel H20

@dkerr 
the RH 5 sounded more neutral and transparent than the RP 7.  The RP 7 sounded soft and overly polidhed, rounded off on top despite trying the best tubes to fix it.  
i could easily have lived with the RH 5, I traded the RP 7.  
The Cary SLP 98 has extreme drive and dynamics despite the RCA connections.  
My preference would still be the RH 5 though.  

when i had the cary slp98p i felt the unit was very euphonic, rather rolled off on both freq extremes, a very caramel type of sound... moreso than counterparts from cj, arc, modwright...  ymmv

@avanti1960 

... important to note is that the rogue RH 5 sounds much more dynamic than the RP 5 (no balanced connections either). it even sounds better than the twice as expensinve RP 7 which i owned. I was very disappointed in the lack of dynamics in the RP 7.

I noticed on another forum that you said ...

never heard the 9 but the rp 7 is possibly the most transparent and dynamic piece i have heard. incredibly clear with no loss in smoothness.

Did you change your mind later on the dynamics of the RP-7 after listening to it for longer, or did you still have the RH-5 and later pop it back into the system to compare?
   

my thoughts on the RP 7 became less favorable after the honeymoon phase, possibly additional burn in.  guilty as charged.  I should have kept the RH 5, I only traded it because I had the opportunity.  
the RH 5 is a smaller modest unit with incredible sound.  

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. :-)