I am confused preamp vs A/v receiver

[pdhanwada]

I have a 6 year old A/v receiver Yamaha HTR 5150. I am planning to upgrade it to probably denon avr 2805 or denon 3805. I have lot of talk on the forum about amplifier/pre amplifier. A/v receivers do the amplifing job then why do we need an amp. I would like to know under what circumstances do we use amp. I have bought pair of paradigm monitor 5s Planning on buying a center channel probably cc 370 of paradigm.

If at all if I want to buy amp to my system then I would have a budget of 500 dollars. Which would be the best one.

Can any body point me to a literature about amplifiers vs A/v receivers.

Thanks
Pandu

[Geoffcin]

I have a 6 year old A/v receiver Yamaha HTR 5150. I am planning to upgrade it to probably denon avr 2805 or denon 3805. I have lot of talk on the forum about amplifier/pre amplifier. A/v receivers do the amplifing job then why do we need an amp. I would like to know under what circumstances do we use amp. I have bought pair of paradigm monitor 5s Planning on buying a center channel probably cc 370 of paradigm.

If at all if I want to buy amp to my system then I would have a budget of 500 dollars. Which would be the best one.

Can any body point me to a literature about amplifiers vs A/v receivers.

Thanks
Pandu

It would probably be best to upgrade it before adding an amp.

[bobsticks]

It would probably be best to upgrade it before adding an amp.

Agreed. Assuming you're going for home theater applications, and at your price, there aren't alot of alternatives. Making sure whatever you purchase has pre-amp outs leaves expansion options for the future.
In hi-end applications seperate pre-amps and amps are used to remove "unnecessary signal processing". Also, the theory is that the manufacturers are devoting more of the cost of production to attending to the basic components(not bells and whistles).
A further reason to involve additional amps would be the usage of low-efficiency speakers. A mid to hi-level receiver will do an acceptable job driving speakers that have moderate load requirements, however, some speakers require a bit more juice to really sing. The Paradigms you're looking at are pretty easy to drive so you should be okay with a receiver upgrade to start.
For more info just scroll through the "Amps" section of this forum. There are plenty of threads in which you can begin your research...

Cheers and welcome to the forum

[Geoffcin]

A further reason to involve additional amps would be the usage of low-efficiency speakers. A mid to hi-level receiver will do an acceptable job driving speakers that have moderate load requirements, however, some speakers require a bit more juice to really sing. The Paradigms you're looking at are pretty easy to drive so you should be okay with a receiver upgrade to start.
For more info just scroll through the "Amps" section of this forum. There are plenty of threads in which you can begin your research...

Cheers and welcome to the forum

Most of the advantages of a seperate amp would be in matching it to a speaker, particularly a high quality, but harder to drive one with lower impedance. Speakers from manufacturers like Dynaudio, Totem, and Magnepan like amps that can produce a lot of current when called for.

[pdhanwada]

Now I understand to drive 4 ohm speakers which need more power we probably need to add an amp. In my situation it is not required.

Thanks a lot for your replies.

[N. Abstentia]

Yeah with $500 stick with a receiver. In a few years if you're ready for the next level you can drop a few grand in a preamp/amp setup. Hey, you have a goal to work towards now