Hey, now! You guys are kind! Alot of good chatter on various topics of interest to me at the moment...sorta hard to figure where to begin...but want to honor the thread theme since some of the technical details are lurking under rocks elsewhere on the various forum threads, especially about using speaker taps with the Hifi-Man stuff. Not that I understand it ("set DC offset zero to nil"? egads! woe is me...).
I found RexAeterna's reference to bypassing the pre-amp section and using the power amp section in a "straight wire with gain" approach quite novel and it begs the question for me to ask for a response thereto: are you referring to accessing the signal produced by the power amp section through the headphone out jacks? (Wouldn't this even be possible?) I also want to know how does one "bypass" the preamp? And on which Yamaha models is this best achieved if the sound source is the headphone out jack? If the signal is flat, is it on the warm side of flat or more neutral like the Pioneer?
To reply specifically to a point earlier raised regarding Pioneer and LCD-2 synergies...I am pretty confident based on my own experience that the two would be and (according to Skylab earlier in this thread) are highly satisfying combos. But the LCD-2s like power, so lower powered Pioneers are probably not as good picks as the SX-1xxx's and higher would likely be.
But to report on the headphone output of the NAD 7225PE. The HK was connected to an Adcom GFA-555 mkII 200 watt amp to drive the 91db sensitive Dunlavy SC-IVs. I switched it out and put in the HK 730...and noticed an increase in bass depth and control and a more layered soundstage....for reasons explained well by RexAeterna...the HK has beefier power supplies and probably a better preamp section than the NAD.
This was confirmed with respect to the headphone output as well; the HK simply had a better match with all my headphones than the NAD. Simply tells me that overall, the HK is better built and has a different sound signature than the NAD..something I would call more "organic", "stomach-filling".
So far, so good...I think I am getting a better feel for how NAD, HK, and Pioneer gear sound like. Now this leaves me with Sansui and Yamaha units to look at. I am quite impressed with the HK sound (Pioneer SX-1250...oh, simply another league, no kidding..just don't expect it to go for less than $600 on eBay and thats being freaking lucky). The "come hither" sound of the HK makes me lust for the siren-call of a Marantz....(I say with conviction that my wallet-shaped ship will crash into the rocks...the bidding on the Marantz' is absolutely nuts...$200-$300 price spikes in the 5 seconds before bidding closes...sheesh!). I have lost a few bid chances of late for a mint Marantz 2285 and there is a busted 2270 being auctioned off at a dirt cheap price that, if repaired by the guys referenced above for the prices quoted, would be a steal as I would get brand new parts for the same price I would get a "used" good condition working 2270 for. But my experience with the big SX-1250 makes me want to spring for a Marantz 2325 so I can put the 2325 (at 125 wpc and capable of handling lower speaker impedance loads, to address a point raised earlier) in the place of the HK740 to do the Dunlavys a deep-sea bass dive down the frequency spectrum. I would then get rid of the NAD 7225PE altogether....