Which is better: separates or receiver?

At that price a big Denon receiver is excellent, or B&K, then Integra. My Denon AVR-5700 has given me great service and is only topped by components costing twice as much. It also depends on your speakers and room size.

For $3,000 I would definitely go with separates. AV Receivers drop in value dramatically as soon as you take them out of the box. With separates I think you'll be happier with the quality of the sound and you'll also be in a position to upgrade down the road if you choose to. At your price point I would recommend the Adcom GFA-7500 5 channel amp and the Marantz AV9000 preamp processor. The Adcom GFA-7500 is five separate mono amplifiers on a single chassis. Each module produces 150 watts into 8 ohms and 225 watts into 4 ohms, with all channels driven. The unit weighs about 60 pounds. It is THX certified and can drive low impedance load speakers without breaking a sweat. You'll wake the neighbors if you're not careful. Lucas Films uses this amp in its studios for mixing THX soundtracks. I'm currently using this amp in my home theater with some low impedance electrostatic hybrid speakers and getting exceptional results. This amp retails for $1,500 but you can pick this amp up on the internet new for around $1,100. It really is a nice piece for the money.

The Marantz AV9000 is an excellent preamp/processor for home theater at your price point. It is THX Ulta certified, uses premium-quality parts and is really well made. The unit has a host of features including a very respectable am/fm tuner. It has 96kHz/24-bit D/A converters and 24-bit A/D converters for exceptional audio quality. It also has one of the best multi-purpose learning remotes I have ever seen! (I know, it's a guy thing). This preamp does a fine job on DVD movies. Musical presentation is warm and accurate. The manual is not so good so patience is needed when you're setting this unit up for the first time. This pre amp retails for around $1,800 but you can get it on the internet if you really look for around $1,300. After shipping, this leaves you about $500 for interconnects, speaker cable, DVDs and popcorn! Regards; -Jerie

Emily:

I think that would depend on a few factors. And those factors would be (1). What is the size of your room, (2). what are the size of your speakers, and (3). how far are you willing to go (i.e.: 30/70, 40/60, 50/50 music/movies, or 60/40 or 70/30 music/movies).

If it is the latter, then I would be going with separates, otherwise, if this going to be a 50/50 type of system and if you or your hubby is not seriously into listening to music, then I think a receiver would make better sense. If I were going with separates and want something of a musical pedgree, and only have about $3K to spend, then the only thing I would go for would be the Anthem pre/pro and their matching amp. But with the pre/pro going for about $2,500.00, that doesn't leave much money for an amp, does it?? So in this case then, I think a receiver is probably your best option. And at $3K, there are a lot of good receivers out there. Two of which I would look at would be the Denon AVR-5800 and a Marantz SR-19. I hope this helps. Good Luck.

I totally agree with Chaskell except on the recommendation of the Anthem pre/pro. For $3,000 you can find really nice pre/pros second hand mostly for about $1,500. Unless you are more concerned with have 6.1 or 7.1 availability, then there are more than enough pre/pros that are DD/DTS capable with excellent sonics and many people who are more than happy with their performance. $1,500 for amplification is a good price point to look especially second hand but you can have an awesome power amp offered by Outlawaudio.com for $1,099.. Their reviews are plentiful and they are known to sound very good as well. Hey, if you want to get a real steal you can get their new reciever which is 6.1 capable and use it as your processor and still have change for good cables. Once again the name is Outlaw Audio (Outlawaudio.com)

Good Luck

You've gotten great advice already....if you want convenience, are likely to not get the upgrade bug over time, and want the system for movies as much as music, I agree with the advice to buy one of the top-of-the-line AV Receivers (my preference is Denon). You'll get excellent performance for years with a minimum of hassle and complexity. If you're willing to look at used equipment (a great approach IMO), you can get a lot for $3000 in separates. You've been given some good things to look at - I'll add a possible combination of a used, decked out Lexicon DC-1 pre/pro and a 5-channel Rotel amp. The DC-1 is somewhat dated, but it's very powerful yet a joy to use - fabulous for movies, very decent for music. You can find them for about $1500 used - look for one that is upgraded to v4.0 software - the software improvement is worth having and the new remote is a major improvement. As somebody else mentioned, receivers depreciate quickly out of the box, so if you're looking at upgrading down the road (even if you don't realize yet that you'll want to), separates offer more options.