Simple questions about integrated amps

[JonW]

Yes, you could; remember that the receiver pre-outs will include some of the receiver's processing and it's volume control, but this isn't a prohibitive problem.

Got it. The only "prohibitive" part I see with that is the receiver being a part of the system, if it's cheap and not very good sounding.

You would use the receiver's volume control for the over-all volume control, however you would have to pre-adjust the integrate's volume control so your main speaker's volume matches your surrounds. Since very few integrates have separate input volume levels for each source input, you would have to do this matching whenever you watched movies or TV.

I understand.

But wait! Let's everyting in perspective: Rather than a separate integrated amp, why not just just get a higher-quality, more powerful A/V receiver and be done with it? Bear in mind, to exceed the quality of a better receiver, you'll be paying $2000+ for the integrated.

Exactly. So I'm thinking about the $2,000 Arcam DVR300.

Here is my hesitation with a $2,000 receiver: It may become obsolete later. So I am out $2,000 a few years down the road. But if I spent $400 on an A/V receiver and, say, $1600 on a decent amp, I'll always have the amp to use, but can view the $400 receiver as disposable. That said, I'm not really into all the latest features. I just want music to sound really, really good. And movies to sound pretty good with all the surround and bass.

If I could do a side-by-side comparison of the $400 and $2000 receivers both using the same amp, that would make the decision easy. Tought to do, though.

You see where I'm coming from?