It's actually very easy to do. Obviously the stereo pre would be connected directly to the amp driving the 802s, and your high-end stereo source also gets hooked into the stereo pre as well, just as if it was a normal stereo-only hookup. The trick is then to use the front L/R preamp outs from the Marantz into the HT bypass or some other unused input (I used to use the aux input) into the stereo preamp. If the stereo pre has an HT bypass you're pretty much done as it takes the stereo preamp's volume control completely out of the picture so it's basically a pure passthrough. If it's a normal input I would just set the stereo preamp's volume control to the 12:00 position as an reference level and then balance the multi channel volume levels with the prepro as usual. With this hookup, when you want to watch HT you just choose the input on the stereo pre that has the output from the front L/R of the prepro, turn the volume on the stereo pre to 12:00 so it goes to the proper preset reference volume level (unnecessary if you have an HT bypass) and you're good to go. When listening to two channel you obviously just switch to the appropriate input on the stereo pre and you're done (just make sure you lower the volume on the stereo pre when switching back from HT to stereo or you'll have a loud volume blast if you don't have bypass). Sounds worse than it is -- it's actually very easy to do in practice. I did this for years until I finally got a dedicated listening room and it was a really great way to go.
I would stress to not underestimate the importance of a really good stereo preamp in a high-end system. In my experience and opinion it is often overlooked but one of the absolute biggest contributors in the quality of sound you ultimately get (or don't get) from your system, and I think others here would back me up on that. Again, best of luck.
I would stress to not underestimate the importance of a really good stereo preamp in a high-end system. In my experience and opinion it is often overlooked but one of the absolute biggest contributors in the quality of sound you ultimately get (or don't get) from your system, and I think others here would back me up on that. Again, best of luck.