Quote Originally Posted by Geoffcin
My main receiver cost me under $1000, and had all of the H/T tech available at the time. When you go up to the flagship receivers you get a better/bigger chassis, a more powerful amp section, and a better remote. If your willing to forgo all of that you can spend the $$$ you saved on a decent 2-channel amp for your main speakers, and use the receiver to drive the other 3 speakers (or 5 in my case) and your receiver will handle those remaining channels even better, as it's been unburdened of the larger current needs of the mains.

I've taken this one step further, as my receivers preamp MAIN OUT is fed into a dedicated 2-channel preamp before going to the 2-channel amp. By adding a preamp to my system it enables me to run my CD player directly, and bypass all the electronics of the receiver. I also feed the analog output of my HD cable box into the preamp (while still running the digital output to the receiver) and get remarkable quality out of it by totally bypassing the receiver in the process. (I believe the HD box has 24/96k DACs)

Even if you do not intend to make a sophisticated setup like this, your 2-channel performance will be markedly better with a dedicated amp for the mains.
So you go receiver -> preamp -> amp? Craziness. Maybe I could start now with receiver -> amp. And then later add a preamp or exchange the receiver for a dedicated pre-pro. Adding extra power for the mains to improve 2 channel performance is a very appealing (and seemingly cheap) idea.