Receiver vs. Dedicated preamp

I have a denon 2801 receiver with preouts and just purchased the rotel 1080 amplifier for my b and w's (dm602s3). I only do two channel listening. Out of curiosity how important is a dedicated preamp such as the rotel 1070. Would a preamp be a big step over the preouts on my receiver on bypass mode. If you believe so would you please reccommend some inexpensive <500 dollar preamplifiers. Thanks to all.

IMO a preamp would be a step up over your average receiver preouts. A brand new preamp for $500 will not be much of an improvement if any unless you buy used. Maybe something like a used Rotel, Parasound Halo P3, Adcom GFP-750, B&K Pro10MC, etc.

Just get the Rotel RC-1070.... it's MSRP is $500... As I've said in previous threads, I absolutely loved the RC-1070 and RB-1080 combo... so I suspect you'd enjoy it....

Best of all, if you ever decide to upgrade your speakers, you won't need to worry about upgrading your amp/preamp!!!