Well, My previous set up consisted of the Parasound HCA1000As (3 amps) and the Parasound acv 2500U and all the speakers are NHT M5s and the NHT sub U2 driven by 2 NHT a1 amps. All cables are from Better Cables Silver serpents. The system was very powerful and punchy but kind of bright in two channel playback. So I oredered the Sunfire 5200. I did own a pair of Sunfire pre/ mutil-amp back in the 90s and the combo sounded very tube like. However, in my set up,the Parasound/ Sunfire combo does not improve much over the Parasound pre/ Parasound amp in home theater set up. The improvement is very subtle. The new Sunfire is kind of not quite tube like as the old one I once had. Smooth, clean, details but kind of thin on top end. The issue with the sibilant top end is better but still almost the same between the Parasound amps and the Sunfire amps. So my issue must be either the Parasound pre or the NHT M5s. Most of the movies, I have to use the THX equalization from the Parasound AVC 2500. I wonder the TGA 5 processor would be smoother than the Parasound Processor. I have decided to listed all my gear for sales to go back to a intergrated 2 channel audio since I cannot play too loud in my small 14X 16 room. Hope this will help.
