Congrats on your purchases. I believe you have optimized what you can get out of your TT and did not exhaust your budget. Just curious, were the cartridge and cork mat purchases based on recommendations made in reviews of your turntable? I am not familiar with the AT 120 EB. The thoughts presented in my previous post were made based on your budget and the fact you were trying to incorporate vinyl into an existing system. I was trying to encourage you to spend slowly and wisely. This I think you have done.
As you go done the road to upgrade I have to say that I agree with paraneer regarding the 'weak link' concept and the AVR preamp being such link. Your are now in a position to consider the approach offered by him, which given you have a 2 channel amp and a phonostage, will allow you to search out a quality used line level preamp with HT bypass and 'have your cake and eat it too', a 2 channel audio system and a surround sound system.
As you go done the road to upgrade I have to say that I agree with paraneer regarding the 'weak link' concept and the AVR preamp being such link. Your are now in a position to consider the approach offered by him, which given you have a 2 channel amp and a phonostage, will allow you to search out a quality used line level preamp with HT bypass and 'have your cake and eat it too', a 2 channel audio system and a surround sound system.