[Scott Dorsey]

Tobiah wrote:

I turned out to be $150, but I picked it up, and hooked it up.
It's hard to A/B amps, but I believe that I'm hearing individual
instruments with better separation, and the bass seems as they say,
"controlled", albeit plentiful. I actually think I'm now better able
to pinpoint some of the things that I don't like as being in the
source material. I was using a JVC receiver earlier.

Really, you might want to listen to some of the earlier advice about the
GFA 535 or GFA 555, or some of the specific Hafler models mentioned. Not
thjat the Denon might not turn out to be good, but then again it might not.

Or maybe I'm just optimistic, but my old receiver died, and I needed to
scratch and itch. I was worried that the old capacitors, should they
have changed over the years, would gradually modify the sound from
the amps new state. I'm not sure what the actual concern about the
caps is, whether its quality, or simply working or not.

Measure frequency response. Measure noise. If they are good, the thing is
not suffering cap failures. Well-designed and well-constructed equipment does
not have a problem with electrolytics aging. Poorly-designed equipment does,
either because the caps used are poor or because they are in places in the
signal path where the values are critical or because the whole system runs too
hot and bakes the electrolytics out. There is a lot of poorly-designed gear
out there, some of it very expensive.

I assume that I should turn the input gain controls down as far as
I can, while achieving my desired loudest volume with the Mackie
at unity. Does that sound sane?

There is a good introduction to gain staging in the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement
Handbook. I highly recommend it.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."