Many thx to larryy, gsr and AbMagFab for your inputs!
Espcially considering the fact that all three have gone down different roads. Basically all three of you guys are equally happy with your present gear.
The issue I brought up about mixing combos or not, was for me important and interesting for different reasons:
1. Not everyone does have any existing separates before aquiring a pre/pro, myself included. I own just a normal A/V receiver for now. So down the line I will have nothing else to compare a full combo with.
2. Everything else aside, would matching a combo instead of getting parts from different brands, make actually make more sense or would it make it more smart, economical, practical, feasable or suitable for the owner? If already owning a heavy amp I would definitely understand why one would keep the amp and only go for the pre/pro piece. That is even more true if you happen to be pretty comfortable/satisfied with your existing amp.
But I do wonder whether it really wouldn't matter choosing for instance an Anthem P5 + P2 and ultimately getting an amp-combo with a total of 7 all the way monoblock channels compared to another piece, a non-monoblock gear with 7 or more channels, if this combination would be, say, sonicly compared to Denon AVP/POA? Shouldn't the Anthem P2 + P5 even logically be more tempting?! I mean everything else equal, could a Denon AVP + Anthem P5+P2 be more attractive than say a D2v + P5+P2? Or the other way around... could for instance Anthem D2v + Denon POA have any chance of sounding better than a Denon AVP + POA combination??
3. The problem with reading separate reviews on every one of these amp gears is that they're very seldom directly compared to one another during the same review and with otherwise the exactly same components. Of course, any of the Anthem P5, Denon POA and probably even krells, Mark Levinsons and even an Arcam P777 would without doubt get nothing but hurrays and superlative adjectives all the way from the reviewer.
But that does not say anything about which combination would actually be offering the best sound quality. Amps do basically the same thing at the end, some connectors might differ, and also considering the price tag of these babies, they're more likely to differ somewhat in their sound characteristics being heard by the listener, rather than very obvious sound quality issies in terms of considerable shortcomings of any kind in any one of them compared to the others.
So what I'm trying to say is that while every single of you guys being mighty satisfied, let's say impressed even, with your existing combos to this date, does that really make it an objective consideration all other things alike, or is it more about the kind of a "sound" every single one of you has come to recognize, like, prefer and even got acustomed to since you happen to own your specific system? Of course the sound is most likely to be preferred by different listeners based on highly subjective preferences rather than sonicly objective judgement... but does that mean that for a person who does not own a separate combo yet and maybe doesn't even have the opportunity to test-drive any of them due to lack of local availability of those gears, wouldn't matter which one to choose since no matter the combination, it should probably sound "good enough" in any system set up?
Does it mean that the only reason why one would go for a "real combo" and choosing a merrige between two or more pieces from the same company, would be all about the matching looks of the peices and some matching connector-interface point of view? Or could a pure and real combination also offer genuinly a better sound quality overall than would if combined with som other brand, even though every single part by itself when put in another system should prove to be just equally good everything else alike?
Considering my own thoughts, I'm inclined to believe that there should be some positive sides when choosing a combo from the same company. But aside from that, logically but without ever being able to actually prove it objectively by listening and comparing, I'm also pretty bias or should I say "willing" to think that a P5 + P2 combo, all monoblock channels, should somehow have the potential of offering a better range, more power and less constrained sound compared to being put in other systems.
But then again I could be totally off or maybe the differences are so subtle that you would attest it's not even audiable.
Hmm.. pretty confusing! I guess it all comes down to being subjectively "happy" with the gear which your owns. Just a pitty that I probably wouldn't even be able to find ONE store in any place here in Sweden which would offer me any kind of existing piece of those mentioned above, not even from ONE brand, let alone offering a true and real listening audition for actual comparing purposes
Cheers,
/B.
