Quote Originally Posted by portraitinjazztv
Sorry for the lack of info in my post.....I've been accused of being too detailed in the past, so I was trying (unsucessfully) to economize.

To elaborate, I currently have a pair of Paradigm Studio 20s and a Cambridge Audio D500se CD player. As of today I have no power supply at all (amp/integrated/receiver, etc), so my system is currently dormant.

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...Have you heard Bill Evan's Portrait In Jazz? If you haven't and you're into jazz (I assume so from your moniker) I highly recommend it.

Most integrateds that I'm aware of have little or nothing to do with HT or any sort of HT bypass feature...Most are aimed at the stereo crowd (like myself) who eschew that sorta' stuff in favor of interconnectivity...Are you quite sure that you haven't mistaken Pure-Direct or some other mfrs. name for their tone control circuitry bypass feature? I mean you could send a processed signal from the pre-out of any A/VR so equipped to the input of any amplification device...You then get into redundant volume controls, etc. however...

Denon has it's PMA-2000 looks to be a great unit, unfortunately it has an MSRP of $1200...

Marantz has it's PM-7100 @ $649 MSRP and has the connectivity of the Denon above. Like the PMA-2000 it has pre-out/power-in jacks and tape monitor ckts. which makes for superior connectivity, unfortunately both have the switch that separates the pre- from the power amp on the rear panel, not particularly convenient for everyday use.

Yamaha's AX-497 @ $449 MSRP doesn't have pre/pwr jacks...which limits expansion to some degree...

Pioneer's Elite series A-35R @ $200 MSRP also has limited interconnectivity...

NAD and Adcom are other possibilities...

There are some 2ch stereo receivers from HK, Denon, Marantz, and Outlaw that have great flexibility in how you can wire things together; all have the pre-/pwr jacks, which in my mind (along with tape monitor circuits), are the most important features in audio gear.

Yes there's other stuff to be had, but the prices rise substantially and things like tone controls and phono pre-amps are left out...I have a sizable vinyl collection and certainly some of those disks can benefit from a judicious tonal tweak now and again...Halo by Parasound, Cambridge Audio, Creek to name a few...

You can also simply have two dedicated systems and use a proper switching device to send their respective outputs to the same set of front speakers when required...The Russound AB-3.2 is ideal for this function.

jimHJJ(...That's about all I have...)