In my ongoing quest for the best bang-for-the-buck HT receiver, I sent back another one. Two months ago it was the Panny 55. This time it was the HK 435. It failed to sufficiently light up my Paradigm Studio 40's the way that my good old NAD C370 integrated does. The highly touted Harman "high current" bit just didn't deliver for me.
I think I'm gonna have to go seperates to get the most out of my Paradigms. Or else strap a two channel power amp onto a surround receiver with a good pre-amp section. Any ideas?
I'm beginning to sound like a marketer for Outlaw Audio. But I think the Outlaw separates will definitely light up your Paradigms and make them shine. Model 990 pre/pro with the Model 7125 power amp.
I'm not surprised that both the Panny and HK didn't appear to have the same sort of power delivery as the NAD. After all, the NAD is a 120w/ch amp whereas the others are at best 100w/ch and 65w/ch respectively - and this is at best! The NAD delivers 120w/ch with 210w peak into 8, 360w peak into 4 ohms. It's a far more powerful amp. Now you could use the NAD as a power amp by plugging the main preouts of your surround amp into its Main In input.
If you want something with the same sort of grunt as the NAD you'll have to look further up the scale I think.
Have you looked into the NAD T773 Mark? I have the T763 running a pair of Paradigm Monitor 7's and it is plenty powerful. I would be suprised if the T773 didn't do your studios justice.
I still have my T773 and sounds really great with the Paradigms, except for that annoying hum/hiss which was really evident with Axioms. Very musical, but I would not recommend it for HT.