- Then it's highly unlikely you need an outboard amp though yes that McIntosh stuff is lovely and long-standing, a kind of audio comfort food. I'd get a top AVR that has what you need and no more, and try it out. If it sounds fine, no strain, keep that. Based on peak power data by channel I firmly believe if an external amp is added it should be for all THREE front channels, and should be ≥300W@4Ω (FOUR ohms because speakers are not resistors and even the "8 ohm" speakers are really more like 4 these days). We really like an ATI 525NC we got, runs cool as a cucumber. We tried an actual cucumber but the sound was somewhat squishy...
- You mentioned not upgrading often, we've had good luck with Denon over some decades. (You can find horror stories about any brand of course).
- If a speaker does not sound good, particularly at moderate volumes, it's because the speaker is not good. A different amp may sound somewhat different but it simply
cannot fix the frequency response and sound radiation problems of an infelicitous speaker.
- You mentioned a difficult room, so good room correction is a
must. Audyssey XT32 (+ App) and now Anthem's ARC have both helped our bass to be far smoother, very audible with a bass sweep tone. Dirac should also be quite good but I've never used it. The other systems are not as sophisticated though they may work fine for some systems.
- Speaking of speakers, do you like yours? Lots? Not really? So-so? Pray tell, pray tell, speakers make 12.86X more difference than all the rest of the stuff, they are simply far far less accurate.
- To second
@techsamurai what do you have for subs? Spend money there much more so than external amps if you're not blasting the SPL