Picking the right amp...

Jesseasi, you have some good suggestions from fellow A'goners in above posts. If 80% of your use is for home theater, as you have indicated, then I am not sure you will go wrong with the brands mentioned above.

I currently use a Krell KAV-1500 and a Krell KAV-250a/3 to drive my 5-speaker B&W Nautilus system. I bi-amp my Nautilus 801 front speakers and HTM-1 center speaker, with 2 remaining channels on 250a/3 for the Nautilus 805 speakers for surround.

I have bought and sold quite a few amps (including EAD) and have settled on the Krell because I found that I listen to music a lot more than I thought I would on my home theater system. I found Krell to be the best match for my B&Ws. While other amps were quite good, I just found the Krell to be the most transparent, dynamic and musical against my speakers.

Now the question is, are the Krells worth the price difference versus other amps? I thought so. But are the differences all that significant? Not really. But then again, that is the problem we all face with high-end audio... Often our choices are very subjective and personal.

So which ever amp you decide to settle with, make sure you bi-amp your 802s. It will make a lot more difference in sound quality than with which brand of amp you choose from the above mentioned list....

I'd look at a Bryston 9BST.
They can be had relatively new for around $2500 or so.

Not only do the Brystons sound pretty good, they are also bullet proof with the best warranty (20 years) in audio.

KF

I would go for the Krell (I did). At 300 watts into 8 ohms, you can drive anything with plenty of power left over. You can also bridge the amp and turn it into a 2 channel or by bridging 4 channels it can become a monster 1100 watts! In other words, it's a great sounding amp, it's compact 19" wide by 6 1/2" tall by 24" deep, it's flexible, and at $3500 it will maintain most of it's value at resale.

I'm using mine to drive a pair of B&W Nautilus 804s, the HTM2 and a pair of N805s.