I am considering moving up to outlaw 970+outlaw 125X7wpc separates from an Harman Kardon AVR630 rated 75wpc is it worthwhile to do so ?

My setup includes A pair of ST3 towers front, SS Dipoles sides, and either SBL bookshelves or ST2 towers for the rear plus SC center all rated above 90db. The towers are 93-95 sensitivity but I feel the urge to up the base on them and I fear the HK may not hold up. Basically I am wondering if there will be improvent in sound be it soundstage, imaging and lower noise floor, better bass response etc. At the moment the set up sounds great but I do feel bass is a bit lacking and have to adjust tone on receiver. Any opinions?

I had a h/k 525 which is very similar to the 630 and the 970/7125 blows it away. Your speakers are more sensitive so unless you have a very large room the outlaw combo should prove to be all the power that one could ask for. That being said I have not heard the 990/7700/7500 which are most likely even better but for the money the 970/7125 is a great upgrade from the 630.

I went from an HK AVR435 to the Outlaw 1070 and thought the improvement in sound quality, particulary for music was substantial. I also have 95dB sensitivity towers for front speakers and 91dB-93dB for center and rears. The noise floor is non-existant with the Outlaw --- seriously. I also find that musical instruments are more cleanly separated from each other than with the HK. Voices sound very natural, I found that there was excessive sibilance with the HK.

The 970/7125 should be even better, although with efficient speakers you may want to consider the 990/7075 instead for an extra $100.

Interesting that the 435 did not keep up with the 1070 as they are rated almost the same power wise. When you say noise floor are you commenting on how much hiss there is present during silent passages when you turn up the volume on a CD source etc.? About the 990, there seems to be an issue with the BM and its too tall for my shelf.

Oh, the 435 kept up just fine power-wise as far as loudness goes --- in fact, it goes a bit louder than the 1070 at near-max settings. However, the sound quality was not there. Yes, by noise floor I'm referring to background hiss during quiet passages. It wasn't bad with the 435, in fact I didn't really notice it until I compared it to the 1070. A NAD I had previous to the HK was much worse though for background noise.

The 1070 has a nice setup for BM with the 3-way toggle for analog inputs. The 435 had better BM functionality for digital inputs, with the ability to set in on a per-input basis. The 435s AutoEQ was a bit of a toss-up, on the one hand it EQd the sub which really helped out with the low end, however I found that it had the effect of narrowing the front soundstage. It was as if there was a single big speaker instead of three front speakers --- this was nice in some respects, particularly for movies, but I preferred to not use the AutoEQ in the end.

I don't recall a huge difference in bass with the 1070, I thought the 435 was fine in this department and use a sub as well though.

Cool, I thought had noticed this difference between my AVR630 a higher end Sony, and the DPR1001 but wasnt sure if its because the recording was bad. This is not something I am too familiar with (if amp signal to noise is causing hiss or if its the recording). I am certainly interested in keeping this to a minimum as there is audible hiss at my preferred listening level of around -10 to-5 from reference level. The 7125 should therefore theoreticaly lower this over the AVR amps.