A "Downgrade" that proved to be a spectacular "Upgrade" -------


Has anyone here, out of necessity, installed a piece of gear into your system that should have been an obvious "Downgrade" but actually turned out to be an "Upgrade" ?  I know this sounds topsy-turvy, but I recently removed two highend amplifiers from my system for regular maintenance and substituted a multi-channel amp that had previously been assigned the job of handling just the bass frequencies.  I was positively stunned at how alive the system sounded !  Even my wife, who is typically uninterested in most things audio, instantly remarked on the improvement ! The tweeters and woofers were now on the multi-channel amp and the mids still assigned to a McIntosh 2105 amp. The multi-channel amp in question is a 7 channel Outlaw amp, the highend amps that were removed were Burmester 878s and the loudspeakers are Linkwitz "Orion"s.  All-in-all it has been a terrific sounding system but I couldn't believe this incredible improvement in every respect when I made the changes.   Ever happen to you ----- anybody ?

128x128terraplane8bob

Outlaw bests Burmeister wow.  I had a pair of Outlaw amps about a decade back.  I put them on the par with a Bose table radio

@waytoomuchstuff ....As for the 2nd spouse 'issue'....I'm sure the 'work-around' has proved to be the least of the mystery...😏

As for multi-channel amps....I've more ways to 'skin that critter than the critter worries about' in that department of redundancy department. *s*

The sub has it's own amp, and if any item or pair needs more, it's available.

All 'clean & dark' enough for this immoral mortal.... ;)

I’ve been thinking, there is NO WAY the cable swap could/should have made such a huge difference. His existing cables sounded great previously.

I suspect, somewhere in the ’new chain’ (used tube preamp, used tube phono stage), a connection is iffy, somehow the last cable change moved something, somewhere that made the big difference.

I suggested taking the covers off of both units, inspecting jacks, socket wires, dip switches contacts (biggest suspects), .....