Looking for upgrades to my HT/music sound system, I've gone through the major hitters already for my budget (speakers - Philharmonic BMR, subwoofers - 2x HSU ULS15.2, room treatments, bass integration/DSP) and am now looking at amplification. Running everything off a Denon X3600, which has good measurements from the ASR review. I'm primarily looking at any improvements to audio quality for stereo music listening, so am considering some kind of stereo amplifier in the <$1k range, like a Hypex type of amp. Currently the Denon sounds great to me, plenty loud, no audible distortion.
What I can't figure out is how to interpret all the conflicting information on this forum. Do amps matter? Yes, no? Is a nice Hypex amp audibly different than a good receiver's amp (and not just audibly different, but enough to actually matter to show a subjective improvement)? There seems to be a lot of effort here to discern the different electrical characteristics of various amps (i.e. the "science"), but not a lot of effort to show what that means in the subjective experience (something "science" tends to avoid, but in the end, this is what really matters for the consumer of such products). Especially when considering that speaker distortion and psychoacoustcs can greatly mask any differences between great/good amps. Are higher end amps just jewelry, somewhat equivalent to fancy high-dollar cables (clearly pooh-poo'd on this forum)? Or do they really make an audible and scientifically provable improvement to the subjective experience? What do I do with ~$1k?
