Since you don’t need all the functions of the DMP-A8, I suggest considering the new Bluesound Icon for $1000. Alternatively, you could get a Bluesound Node and pair it with the stupidly excellent Topping E70 Velvet DAC and still come in well under budget, you just won’t have a touchscreen (which are ultimately kinda useless with streamers unless you use them at a desk).
The preamp section in your Yamaha integrated is remarkably good. It’s not strictly neutral and 100% transparent IME, but it does outperform some rather pricy solid state and tube-based preamps. It’s somewhat the best of both worlds between tube and SS preamps IME. Adding an outboard preamp and using the 2200 strictly as an amplifier can yield a slightly “cleaner” sound, but not necessarily better. It’s not hyperbole to say that Yamaha could package the 2200’s preamp section into a nice standalone chassis and easily get away with pricing it at $3K^. My intuition is that the 2200’s pre is essentially what their flagship C-5000 would essentially distill down to once the PS and phono extras are stripped away.
Perhaps lesser quality parts, but I would bet the basic circuit topology is the same.
