Shakeydeal

Somehow I think I should be offended by that....

There's been a lot of bandwidth expended on this when it's probably just a nothingburger.

Mcintosh and Luxman are two that I can think of. Hardly mainstream or the norm.

Now you're talkin......

@Stephen Buck You can only imagine how good those AL5s will sound once you get some good gear in front of them.

If it contributes to you enjoying music more, then it's all good. That is, after all, what we want, right?

Get your room and system right and EQ can go pound sand......

The 8033 in my system is not in the signal path for anything but the subwoofer amp. I use the second set of outputs from my preamp to the device, then out from there to the left and right subwoofers. In your instance, I wouldn't be surprised if it adds (or takes away) something. Which is why I wouldn't use DSP in my system for anything other than low frequencies.

I'm not trying to answer for @henry4841, but my take is that if you have a source with 2v output, have 104 db speakers, and an amplifier with high(ish) input sensitivity, you are a prime candidate for a passive linestage.

I use the Dspeaker Anti-mode 8033 II on my subs and it works as advertised. I wouldn’t be without it. I have no experience with their full range room correction products.

Famous last words…..😆

Question. Did you have the CW4 and the AL5 in the exact same location? And I don’t mean near each other, but exactly. If not, you may be hearing a room node exacerbated by the position of the LaScala. If so, try the Cornwalls in that location. And make sure your location is the same every time.

The best scenario is either a different integrated with remote or an amp/preamp combo and use the Node with its volume control in fixed mode.

So is the marantz an integrated amp? Does it not have remote? I don’t understand why you are Daisy chaining two volume controls?

Well if you are using it with ample volume control and you feel like you aren’t losing dynamics and slam, I’d say it is working just fine. Ideally you want to use as little attenuation as possible and be at the upper 2/3s of the range, not near the beginning of the range. So the question is, how does it sound to you? You might still get better results with an active pre, but most of the time you know right away it’s not a good match.

The position of the volume control has nothing to do with the power output of the amp.

The Node volume control is done in the digital domain and it’s not a very sophisticated one at that. When you attenuate past a certain point, you are throwing away bits. Not good. So it’s no wonder a preamp sounds better. But if you have enough front end gain, a well designed passive pre will beat most all comers.

Depends on the input impedance and sensitivity of the amplifier. And the output impedance and voltage of your source. It certainly could work.

That is beyond cool 😎

Well that’s impressive for the price.

Is the Willsenton wired point to point?

Agreed!

Where the hell did you get that from? I'd rather have an amp that sounds good than one that measures good. Don't put all your eggs in the low distortion basket

I'm not saying it's much better. Since they are both made in China (not saying that's a bad thing) and both use the same output tubes, my guess is they sound more alike than different. I've just never cared for the aesthetics of Prima Luna gear. I like the looks of the Willsenton better and the fact that buying through Amazon gets you a no hassle return policy if you don't like it. With TMR, you will have to pay shipping both ways and a 5% restock fee. That's just my opinion.

I think all of those are better choices than a cheap receiver. I would probably go with the Willsenton if it were me.