D2v vs Classe ssp800, which would you prefer?


I have narrowed my choice of ssp's to either the Anthem D2v or Classe ssp800 and would like to hear peoples opinions. It seems to me the anthem has more features but not quite as good sounding as the ssp800. Any thoughts on what you would have in your system?? I am currently an avm30 owner and love it! Obviously, I am very familiar with how it works and its set uo, i.e stay with what you know. My room is not thad bad either. The system is paradigm sig's, mac mc207amp and Marantz ud9004. (would love to own the Mac MX150 but it is priced out of contention. Thanks
docrobbi

Showing 3 responses by bo1972

I do consulting in sound and vision. I had many stereo highend systems. I did now have surround because the quality was not good enough want I wanted. Until roomcorrection. It breings surround to a level which I am happy with. Without it I would not want surround even for free. Wenn you have highend systems 3 dimensional sound is a pre, or you miss an important part in realistic sound. That was the reason why I sold my Nautilus 800S. B&W is very poor in 3d imaging. Wenn you want to go further in quality you have to stop with some brands. Classe is a brand what is very capable of depth. But without roomcorrection you never get that level which is superior. In the past I owned the Pass Labs XA100.5 and XP-20. Now I use the Pass labs X250.0 and Onkyo PR-SC5509. The grazy thing is; I have an extreem 3d image even with stereo. Onkyo ( Integra) is the only brand which can play deep behind the speakers. Brand like Arcam, Marantz, Denon are all 2 dimensional. I sold these brands for many years and I tested them many times. For me it is as simple as 1 and 1 is 2 what it is capable for in quality and properties. With Audessey Pro I got a level what I never thought it would be possible in surround. Focus on instruments and how clear a voice sounds go's more easily than wenn I used the XP-20. There is one limitation. You need to know a lot about sound to use Audessey pro. For most consumers it is not an easy system to use. I measure at different hights than Audessey does. But at the end I get an higher level in quality they get. Wenn I play stereo my sub is fully stealth with the other speakers. These days I set my sub to 120hz. This sets everything to an higher level. You need a subwoofer without bass reflex system and a big speaker unit only on the front side. Alle other kinds of subs I tested all failled in tests to become fyll stealth. I hate wenn a sub is to slow and not fully stealth. Most subs you can throw in the garbage bag. Only with a good roomcorrection system like Audessey pro your speakers incl. sub become one. Wenn you do not use this you always can easily hear the flaw's. For me it is perfect sound or nothing. There is never a solution in between.
I am from Holland, in the US there are a lot more brands in audio. Sherbourn is not available overhere. I cannot Judge about the brands I don't know. The biggest difference about Onkyo is that it like the best highend pre-amps can give a wide and deep stage. This is very uncommon in this pricetag. Most competitors like Denon, Marantz, NAD, Cambridge etc are almost 2-dimensional. They do not have a lot of depth.
I can let people hear the difference between Audyssey roomcorrection on and off. But I also can let them hear the difference between Audyssey EQ and Audyssey on and off. So I can let people hear my way of measuring. Because it is so much better in dynamics and resolution wenn it is used compared to off. My way of measurement is superior to what Audyssey uses there measurement. Nice to hear people are that stunned what it does.