ICE amps vs analog amps for bass

One caveat on the ref500s. Although they are supposed to be the best sounding amp Bel Canto makes per John, according to my dealer he hasn't sold any. Why? Because the Ref1000s are only about $500 more so customers either buy the ref1000s or drop way down in the price range to the s500 (almost half the price of a pair of ref500s). Or they drop down to the ref1000s Mk1s at 2/3s of the price of the MkIIs. I've read that the Is sound pretty close to the mkIIs. Just something to consider if you plan to sell at some point.

Thanks for all the suggestions. The Legacy Helix cannot be run full range. They are designed to be quad amped with a stereo amp for the treble, a stereo amp for the midrange, a stereo amp for the bass, and a stereo amp for the subs. The setup from Legacy included ICE amps for the subs, ICE amps for the bass drivers which are built inside the speakers cabinet. My Levinson monos are arranged as follows one pair for the midrange, one pair for the treble drivers. I've chosen to use monoblocks (which I owned already) so that each speaker sees about 1,750 watts per channel. This is truly a remarkable and innovative setup. Please read the Dagogo review on the Helix speakers.

Again I'm glad for all your help and suggestions.
Oh, I'm using silver interconnects from Signal Cable from all the crossover connections to the speakers.

Thanks,
STeve

i had two dig. amps,Bass was extremely powerful and pretty detailed,but when it got right down to it it was just way to much,all anybody hears about is the high damping factor,,blah blah blah.Now i have a Counterpoint amp,do i at times want a bit more bass sure i do.What i found is bass and quality of it is way way more dependent on the RECORDING if its strong on the recording,its more then good enough on my system,I think my damping factor is 75.

With 98db sensitivity and over a kilowatt per side, I'd say power was not your problem.
Setup? Are these speakers a new-2-you install? Have you tried some room mods? Are they located optimally?
The 'd' amps may simply pass the signal more quickly or slowly than the amps it is paired with. Sound travels about 14" per milisecond, so it won't take much time differrence to 'smear' the image. Phase/timing issues will destroy many of the phase/ spatial q's which you complain about. Likewise, cables should be the near-last thing to worry about.
Sounds like your speakers could also be out of *relative* phase, at least in the sub module.....? hmmmm

I have painstakenly moved them through the listening area. Bill Duddleston,the designer and owner of Legacy Audio, set the speakers up himself. The Xylex crossover is unique in that all parameters of the speaker can be adjusted through the crossovers software on your laptop. He adjusted the speaker so that it each driver was time aligned and zeroed in the speaker.
However, I recently reversed the polarity of the right speaker, and things immediately jelled. Bill and I are both puzzled about the results and are investigating further.
Yet even though the speaker is overall clearly superior to my Revel Salon/JL Audio combo, there are still nuances that I miss when I listen to familiar recordings. They don't sound bad, I just know there is something missing, and it is in the bass/sub bass area. This appears hard to convey to the designer.
This is why I suspect the ICE Power amps. The bass does jump out at one, and is impressive, I just don't hear the bloom and subtle shadings I was used to.

Anyway thanks for all the suggestions. I will try positioning the speakers some more. I've seen this make a great difference.
I'd sure welcome other opinions, I'm sure there is something I'm not considering.

Againg if you're not familiar with this SOTA contender,
check out the DAGOGO.
http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=55

Thanks,
Steve