If you want less hassle in the end go with Tone controls... you could swap preamps and cables for the next 15 years and never get a perfect match, if you need more or less of something make it easy for yourself and have at least bass and treble adjustments. In turn you will see that its not your speakers or amp that you need to keep changing out, they will perform pretty well if you give them a little kick. I found the most important things to spend money on in the end was Source, Speakers, Preamp, And Room(acoustics) Then Worry about the amp, which are nowhere near as problematic to get a good one as the other stuff, and finaly worry about cables, power conditioning, Spikes etc... I just bought a Mcintosh Preamp with the built in 5 Band EQ which has adjustable Loudness and a 30hz control and never heard my system go to the subsonic levels with ease like this, truly got me to the potential of the system. So do yourself a favor and forget about Knocking that 1 db of treble off with a 500.00 pair of cables, or thinking that 1000.00 in bass traps will give you the extra boost you need for deep bass and get it over with by putting in something you can control at your fingertips, and not have to try and beat the odds and change the physics of your entire system several times.