Used 5ch Amp (Classe, Krell, Rotel)

That being said, danimaz would have to understand that this would be a staged approach, as he can probably only afford to get only one 2-channel amp or set of monoblocks now. Which means he would ultimately be spending $6-10K in the end if he wants that typeof sound. Plus, he would probably have to deviate away from Rotel as an amp choice which means left/right and center/surrounds would now have completely different sonic signatures.

No. Not at all. My thought was to add a stereo integrated and done. Period. $2200 for something like a Hegel H200 and let the Rotel handle center and surrounds. Done. The H200 will scale the C20s to soaring new heights and HT still sounds great. The center speaker doesn’t match the L/R anyway, so worrying about matching amps is useless. My guess is, after adding the integrated the OP won’t even feel the need to upgrade further, but that’s just my guess. At least the C20s will finally be driven by proper stereo components, and since 50% of his listening is stereo, that’s a pretty big deal. If he wants, he can always sell the Rotel and buy a good-quality 3-channel amp, but I wouldn’t. The Rotel is fine. BTW, there’s a nice H200 available now, and it’s got a HT bypass so will just drop nicely and seamlessly into the existing system.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/323589727096?ul_ref=http%253A%252F%252Frover.ebay.com%252Frover%252F1%252F7

I'm a big fan of dedicated 2 channel, my two channel system has tubes... Tubes do have their issues but they transduce complex harmonics better than SS unless... you spend some serious cash.
So back to your question, I also have a dedicated HT in a different room, todays movies need no less than 5.1 channels and can do very nicely on 7.1 (movies on 2 channel system using phantom mode for center... YUK!). Consider NAD and/or B&K for amplification on HT, B&K is a little bit on the warm side of neutral.  NAD, underrated and the real deal when it comes to power... great impact for HT. You can get NAD's used at a reasonable price, consider 'bridge mode' for some serious power.

No multi-channel anything sounds as good as 2 channel.

Not true. The Balanced Audio Technology VK-6200 sounds as good as any 2-channel amp in stereo - and there’s a reason for this. The VK-6200 is a chassis that you populate with the number of channel amplifiers you want, up to a maximum of six channels.

Each amplifier channel is it’s own separate amplifier with it’s own power supply. The amplifier sounds as good as any two channel amp when used for stereo because you’re using two separate amplifiers - one for each channel. The amp was so good, that BAT made a two channel version for stereo only use.


The downside to the amp is that it is BIG.   My six channel version weighs a little over 220 pounds.  The chassis weighs about 80 pounds and each amplifier weighs about 24 pounds.

Okay, I'm going to go back and through your original post.  I think it's going to be extremely hard to beat or come close to the Krell Chorus 5200.  Even though it's going to be slightly liquidy, it's an extremely clean and refined sounding amp.  Anything lower cost, such as Emotiva, ATI, Anthem are going to sound harsh and grainy in comparison.  Just throwing that out there.