Huge sound stage

Tgyeti,

Congratulations on your system! It seems you have found your Audio Nirvana (at least for the moment!).

As far as which component did what, I would not venture a guess (except that whatever components you replaced did not work in your system). From your description it seems the sound from your new components have created a synergistic effect. Sit back and enjoy the music!

In response to Newbee, is it possible Tgyeti's system is out of phase? Yes. Probable? No. If Merry Clayton is singing to your neighbor, the Atlanta Symphony is doing a wandering minstrel act or Gene Simmons is standing behind you licking your neck (err, scary thought!), I would have a problem. But if everything seems normal (at least to the recording engineer) and the system does what it is supposed to do, the soundstage can be as small as one person or as huge as an orchestra (or bigger!). That is just my interpretation of Tgyeti's statement. FWIW

In terms of which component contributed the most, I would say the one that replaced the weaker link. While Newbee is correct in his assertion that if the source doesn't get the info off the disc, it can't be reproduced, it is also true that a weak component anywhere in the chain can lose that info. I have only carefully auditioned a handful of pre-amps, nad have always been amazed at how much they can change the sound. It seems like they have an easy job, but it's difficult to find a good one.

regarding the phase issue, if you have good bass, you probably don't have any phase problems (unless you are bi-amping). I have heard the effect Newbee describes in car audio, if I had, say, the two midranges out of phase. It sounds sool for a few minutes, then just wierd.

The Musical Fidelity A5 is great at the big 3 dimensional soundstage. I know this was an area of considerable improvement when I added it to my system over a stock Denon 2900. Of course, this element was improved upon with the addition of a tube integrated amp as well.