Moving to separates

Ok, I have added some photos to my profile.

Well, I made the switch way back in ’94 in the oldy but moldy days of Dolby Prologic, and the AVR I had been using was a JVC (I forget which model). What I switched over to was a B&K HT digital preamp, a Cary SLA 70 Signature (amp) for the left and right speakers, a 30 wpc Rotel amp (I cannot remember the model, but later I guess I can check) for the rear speakers, and an identical Rotel amp, but in bridged mono, for the center channel speaker. At the time I was listening to a Carver CDP.

This was over 30 years ago, but as I remember the main improvement was not in the HT experience, but listening to CDs was more enjoyable. I don’t even do HT anymore as sometime in the later ’90s all my upgrades went into my two channel system.

If this is just for HT I wouldn’t bother unless the AVR just doesn’t have sufficient power, which it probably does. If it’s at all for 2 channel then get a stereo integrated amp and run the front L/R preouts from the AVR to the HT bypass or other unused line input on the integrated. Reason being that the preamp sections of mass market AVRs suck and preamps are important, so if you just replace the amp the preamp section of the AVR becomes a huge bottleneck to performance and using an integrated amp gets the AVR completely out of the signal path for 2 channel, which is what you want. Hope this helps.

. . . so anyway, OP, after that initial upgrade from the AVR to the B&K pre and the Cary amp, over a period of some time that gave me the luxury(?) of being able to replace my separates one at a time. Which I did. (And if I remember, when I started upgrading my separate components was when I started giving up on HT.) I first replaced the Cary amp with a pair of ARC monoblocks (I was still probably doing HT after I did that) and that was another improvement. Then in ’99 I found a local dealer who let me try out a second hand (2 channel) Cary preamp that he had, and that was one of the most noticeable improvements I ever made. But being it was a two channel preamp and I didn’t feel like buying any more processors, this was when I got completely out of HT.

Since then I have made further upgrades in preamps and amps, all of which have had their attributes, but being able to make those further changes on an incremental basis was another benefit of having separates.

Yes. I added a Rotel 250wpc amp to my system long ago... just blows away those integrated amps. Well worth it.