pre-amps for home theatre....whats your preference?

I prefer to use a preamp with by-pass capability with a processor. Use the preamp for stereo music and for the front two channels of surround. I’ve used a Parasound JC-2 BP with a Bryston SP3 and now an Ayre KX-5 Twenty with the SP3. But that may be overkill if you’re sure your interest is movies not music.  Maybe an AVR would satisfy you needs.  A preamp and/or processor implies amps, a more complex and likely more expensive solution.

db

Get a good denon avr x something for movies and a killer integrated with ht bypass for your stereo listening time. All you really need.

millercarbon has forever been on a crusade to kill multi-channel home theater. It's pretty much like a broken record.

And everyone else is on a crusade to buy buy buy more more more. Strangely enough when one after another says the answer is more and more stuff no one ever complains and insults them. Which is what that is. An insult. Not an argument. No intellectual content whatsoever. Just like its author.

Millercarbon, your position on surround sound is ludicrous, especially if more than one person is watching.

The center channel is essential to lock the dialog to the screen for all viewers in the room.


2 channel will never provide surround effects or more complex sound fields that exist in modern multichannel surround.


I would have previously recommended Anthem, but unless they make a good step up in their new receivers, I don't see them as a leader any more. Their internal DACs are not class leading, and other have caught up on amplification.  New release Denon units will keep up at similar money (or less).

If you have the budget get a Trinnov Altitude.