Many questions about HT pass-through options

I agree with Dave's method on a standard preamp, with no "bypass"/"direct" input. The auxilary or whatever works fine.
Degrade sound? Not usually a problem really. Just because there's two volume controls in line, doesn't mean degradation IME. Infact, if you're 2 channel pre's sound was pure from that input to begin with, you should have no problem with the same kind of pure sound you'd otherwise get just using the AV pre'pro for the L/R!
Yep, 12 oclock, or you can tinker.
I've, yes also, used this setup many times, and it works great.

I just happened to see this thread after posting on your other one. I didn't realize you had the MF pre so some of my comments regarding the virtues of a 2 ch. pre vs. a pre/pro are irrelevant. I just picked up an ARC SP16 which has the HT pass through. I can’t comment on the phono section, I don’t do vinyl, but the pass through definitely improves the surround sound listening experience over using a pre without the pass through, setting the volume at 12 o’clock, etc. I still say that for music though you’ll eventually come back to 2 channel so it may be an exercise in futility.

Assuming you integrate a pre-amp with a pass through function, does the pre-amp in the pass through mode pass on any of the sonic benefits associated with it when you are listening to it in the 2 channel configuration. Is there a sonic benefit to going through the pre-amp pass through as opposed to taking the surround sound processor straight to the amplifier? Having a pre-amp incorporated into the system certainly is a benefit for CD listening, but I'd like to hear perspectives if the pre-amp pass through also provides any benefit to HT listening, specifically HT concert DVD's.

The volume control on your preamp is probably much better than what is on your pre-processor, so any degradation resulting from going through both volume controls would likely be virtually unnoticeable. I have tried it both ways and IME the HT pass-thru feature is simply more convenient but no better sounding.

thanks to all of the posters, and I appreciate the additional comments re: the virtues/tradeoffs of using my MF Pre especially.

Last night I did it. I removed the extra speakers and amp, and connected my front channel outs into "aux 2" on the MF. I indeed set the MF volume at 12 o'clock, which is easy to remember and set whenever I switch to HT, and didn't require much adjustment in the pre-pro (ie from 0 db) in order to balance speaker volume levels.

I didn't do an A-B to see if there was any degradation, but really didn't notice anything from the little bit I played last night. It sounded great, except I have a little ground loop problem I need to resolve. Since my existing HT has been a true "bottom feeder" assembly and the sound wasn't really audiophile quality in the first place, so this will be at least as good. More importantly, it gives me the opportunity improve it and approach audiophile. I save $ from one amp, one set of speakers, not to mention removing equipment clutter from the room (yes, I actually had 2 sets of speakers in the fronts - one set for each system).

At some point I'll get the bug to buy a new preamp (yea, just because it's what we do) with HT passthru, but this for now is great, and much easier than I even hoped for to implement.

Next up is to swap speakers. I just picked up a Von Schweikert LCR-15 for my center. I currently have Mani-2s set up in this room and will move them into my dedicated 2 channel room, bring my VSA VR4-IIIs from that room to run as mains, and will have VSA VR3's running in the rear. This will be the first time I've had all channels in the HT running the same brand, closely matched speakers, so I'm really looking forward to the result.

thanks again, Brad G.