Home Theater or Two Chanel sound Quality ?

#1 Yes. A separate CDP and a cheaper DVD.... unless you intend to do a lot of SACD/DVD-A. If the 5900 is $1600.00 then I would say split the bidget....$1000.00 to the CDP and $600.00 to the DVD. But clearly the SACD/DVD-A question is the hangup. The more expensive SACD/DVD-A players open a wide gap over the less expensive ones, performance wise. Its not exactly the same with CDPs, you can get very good performance from a well chosen budget player.

#2 No to the Ref50. A used Anthem AVM20, EAD 8000pro, or Krell HTS will only be a few hundred more, and all are certainly a better choice for 2 channel sound quality (some of these may be 5.1 only). If you can pony up a little more, the EAD 8800pro is really good at 2 channel, but so far for me, the Bryston SP1.7 has been unsurpassed in 2 channel sound and is my top pick. (yes, even in a head to head vs. the beloved EAD8800pro)

#2.5 the amps? Hmm, I think you will be OK with that choice. I dont have a ton of experience with B & K amps. I had a ref7250 and the 200.5 around a bit. Both seemed like solid performers for the money with no readily apparent weaknesses.

Something to think about, especially if you are a 2 channel guy, like me. For the best possible two channel sound.... why not get a dedicated two channel preamp with a theatre bypass and a cheaper but decent Processor for DVDs. If I had to do it all over again this would be the route that I would take.

Zroland, Sorry I didnt respond to your email directly yesterday, I had a ton to do, the vines needed netting bad!!! That email is at home but I believe you wanted to know a few 2 channel Preamps that have a theatre/cinema bypass.

I have been eyeing the Pass Labs X2.5 for myself. BAT, Audio Research, Rogue, and Cary (SLP2002) are a few of the makers of preamps I know have HT/Cinema Bypass feature.

Retrospectively, since HT is second to me, I wish I had taken this path (dedicated preamp with a preserved two channel signal path). From experience, I earnestly think the mid priced processors perform very close to the high-dollar ones when it comes to HT duties. In other words, you can put less of your budget into the processor, so long as it is handling HT duties only.

You can also do a search on "HT bypass" or "unity gain," and find some other alternatives or at the very least some interesting reading.

I agree with Distortion above, I would have done it the same way if I had known what I was doing when I had purchased all my HT stuff several years ago.

If multi-channel music is at all important another decent option would be to get a multi-channal analog preamp like the MAP-1 from McCormack. Then you could perhaps get a high quality universal player that decodes DTS and Dolby Digital to feed the analog signals to the MAP-1.

But again my first choice would be to do as Distortion suggests above, it is what I am doing currently.

Go for McIntosh and never look back.

I choose to build my 2 channel first. My integrated has a HT throughput allowing just the use of the amp section for the front channels.

As far as the DVD I agree with Distortion.

Good luck in your search.

Remember to take the system as a whole.