Good stereo sound has always been my primary purpose and will continue to be so, but I do want to be able to enjoy surround sound in my lounge. That said, I don't want to invest too much money on the surround side, so I too was thinking of a basic reciever with pre-outs so I could channel the front sounds through my stereo rig. Whatever reciever I buy will never serve duty for stereo sound - I just want it to decode the surround info from the disks and power the centre and rear speakers. The Musical Fidelity will take care of the fronts.