to RGA, TOPSPEED and others wiser than myself

[nusiclover]

hopefully youve read my post in thread "dumd pre/amp question".

basically, im getting confused with sooo much info ive picked up since my mission began a month ago...but, i am heading forth! i am trying to dicipher if it is really possible for me to KEEp my marantz 6400 (to keep HT) and STILL get a kickass pre/pro to listen to BEAUTIFUL music thru my dyn 52se. What i DONT want to do is have to keep switching my speaker cables between the two. that would be VERY bad and TIRINg. as well as down right stupid. SO, i thought of forgetting about HT altogether (music is a HUGE prioirty) and going with separates or an integrated (both which will sound better than the marantz!!!. BUT, can i keep the cake and the frosting?!?!? can i actually have both connected so that i can do HT thru the marantz then bypass it alltogether to hear my music by the touch of a button. again, without having to manually switch the cables every time. I REALLY hope i havent confused you now. I ALSO thank you all much. I have been having a lot of fun learning. SOON, i too will be able to help other newbies.

[psonic]

WATCH your caps dude, THIs is tough to rEAD and it looks like SHOUTING

Since you seem not happy about parting with home theater, I would recommend starting with a used amplifier from ebay or audiogon. Or new if you have the cash, but used ones seem to have a very long lifespan and you get more amp used. Run it off the marantz pre-outs and see how you like it. Your movies should be improved and it should be a tremendous improvement for music, especially if you go with a ~ 100w/ch amp, it should really wake the Dynes up. Then later on if you want you can sell the Marantz and get a pre-amp and do the separates thing. I would look at names like Arcam, B&K, Rotel, Parasound, Creek, NAD, etc., If you're looking for value. I'd say at least 60-100 w/ch. HTH

[topspeed]

OK, this post makes more sense than the one in the speaker forum. Yes you can have your cake and eat it too. Psonic gave you the blueprint so I'll just add an addendum. Running your two channel with an external amp on your Marantz will definitely improve your your music while not abandoning HT. Of course, you are now limited by the pre/pro section of the receiver (if you buy an integrated, you won't have to worry about this). Eventually you can add a preamp with a "Theater Bypass" function or at the very least a tape loop and then run your cd/sacd or whatever thru it. That way when you listen to music the signal will pass only thru the preamp and amp and not the receiver. This should also make a marked improvement. This will allow you to run both HT and two channel out of the same rig and also give you some flexibility if you decide to go multi-channel hi-rez in the future.

Option 2 is to go separates all the way from the get go. Get an amp (either 2 channel or multi) and a preamp, pre/pro, or integrated. There are preamps now such as the PS Audio PCA2 that can be upgraded to become a pre/pro simply by plugging in a chip. The advantage to this is that your music will not be compromised in the beginning which forces you to spend money trying to make it right.

Which option you choose depends where your priorties are. Based on your other post I still think you should slow down a bit and figure it out. Nobody said this was a sprint. Taking your time and experiencing everything available is the fun part so enjoy the journey.

Good luck and buy what moves you.