McIntosh MX119/134/135 pre/pro or Krell HTS 7.1

I have owned the MX132-MX134 and now the MX 135 and I can say the 135 definetly exceeds the performance of the 134 in both analog 2 channel and digital 5.1 channel. The movie soundtracks that I have such a U571-River Wild-Saving Private Ryan etc have a much better central focus and I noticed more information pouring from my speakers.
The TI Chip Mc uses in the 135 is much much better than the Motorola chip used in the 134. As far as the 2 channel goes the 135 is as close to having a seperate 2 channel pre amp that I can imagine. As far as the Krell I really haven't listend since it doesn't offer some of the flexability the Mc's do. Like bass control, tone control, preset tone/surround set ups, sub in-out with 2 channel etc

Keep the krell. Theo obviously has actually looked at the HTS7.1. The krell as an all analog pre-amp pass throu ability. If you use this for two channel, espcially with a balanced source and amp, you can't go wrong.

As far as the flexablity. apparently an 3 filter parametric eq for each speaker and a global parametrice eq all with multimple preset memories is either to complicated for theo or not enough.

As far as the sub thing, yeah krell calls that full range or full range plus sub

Many people think of the Showcase 7.1 instead of the HTS 7.1. I can understand that. The HTS 7.1 has more features than I'd ever use, more I think than the McIntosh. But I am most concerned with the sound. What should one expect from the McIntosh pre/pro compared to the Krell.

It may not be of that much concern, I think I'll end up changing the front amp(s) before changing the pre/pro.

Eunis2921 - care to loan your monoblocks for a month? You have a very nice set-up.

Dave