So this is what the 150's can sound like
I like to listen to movies fairly loud, and just using the Onkyo 818, some scenes with certain movies would appear on the harsh side, particularly with voices. So I used to find myself turning the volume down a little to reduce the harshness. This would also happen with action scenes as well, so there was probably a point that I couldn't cross for fear of adding some probable distortion into the mix.
Now though, things have changed somewhat. And yes there is a very noticeable difference in adding copious amounts of power for the 150's to relish in. There seems to be a huge amount of headroom with no distortion that I have heard yet, or indeed ever will now.
I have increased dynamics, a huge soundstage, full on and natural, clear sounding vocals. At no point did I want to decrease the volume because a certain element appeared to be harsh or distorted in any way. In fact I felt the opposite, I just had the feeling that it all could be pushed even harder.
I always had the feeling that my 150's were capable of more than what I was hearing with the 818, and to a point even with my previous 3009.
So am I a happy man, you bet I am. Will an upgrade to a seperate processor be on the cards for some time in the future, you bet it could. I just had particular reasons for not going down that route when I sold the 3009 for the 818. But for now, this setup will do me nicely.