http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/...tchingAmplifie rIssues.php

To be honest, most of the technospeak in that article goes over my head until the last page.

I was rather surprised to hear the Panny being associated with "old SET type tube amps" which if I am not mistaken are usually said to be very "warm"---an adjective I have never seen attached to this controversial little thing.

I did notice that the main author of the article happens to own a small audiophile (analog) amplifier company and spends the last 1/3 of the article specifically bashing the Panny based entirely on measurements and ending on this self-revealing note:

"While writing this article I am reminded of the classic truism of analog design: Out of band rejection and noise reduction go hand in hand.
The designers say it doesn't apply here, but I have my reservations."



Funny enough, recently I heard from a fellow Panny owner who auditioned both the Classic and the new SE Ascend speakers and found that he much preferred the Classics. He reported that the new SE speakers had less bass and sounded much brighter than the Classics---jaw dropping, since the slightly lower-sensitivity SEs were specifically designed to provide more bass and to seem "warmer." Unfortunately he did not have a chance to compare the two versions on a normal analog receiver. He added that he spoke to Dave F. about his experience (he sent back the SEs) who he said went and bought an xr55 to investigate...if so, I'm dying to hear his results!



btw, I have not spent a lot of time browsing the Audioholics website but is it my imagination or do they seem to be very measurements-oriented?