I inadvertently started this all by saying the E7 was "not even close" to getting the 650 to it's potential. Someone else called that "madness." (I was stressed all day, as I walked around questioning my own sanity.) When I got home I took a listen. The E7 sounds "fine" with the 650s. But on some pieces that are recorded at relatively low volume (James Newton Howard - Sheffield Labs, for instance) the volume is maxed and (in my purely subjective, unscientific scale of perceived volume[P.S.U.S.P.V]) I'm only 65-70% of the volume that I might occasionally choose to listen to that passage. It was "moderately loud." If you're the kind of guy that doesn't crank it for the beginning of Money for Nothing, that may be "close enough." Occasionally, "cranking it" is important to me so for me the E7 is "not even close." If the E9 was a 10 (which it isn't to me,) I'd have to subjectively rank the E7 no higher than a 7 because it literally cannot achieve a sufficient volume level to satisfy me. 7 out of 10 isn't failing, but in my opinion it isn't "close to potential" either. Now this was all based strictly my perception of volume without even considering sound quality. I'm not trying to suggest that I can hear subtle differences in amps. I just didn't want the OP to think this is the best his 650s are ever going to sound so he might as well start looking for new HPs. (He even said he liked the sound signature.) He has only had them 150 hours.
