Emotiva or Anthem or Something Else?

More thinking and maybe I understand...

Are you saying I could take the Receiver and wire up all of the speakers to the out puts on the Receiver except for the Front Left and Right. For those channels I would connect from the Preamp Out Front Left and Front Right on the back of the receiver to a completely separate two channel amp. That amp would then power just those two speakers. So the end result would be that I would not be using the Front Left and Right channel amps on the receiver. In that case would I even need an integrated amp for those two speakers? Seems like I could just use a stereo power amp and control the volume from the Receiver.  What might be necessary is for the receiver to have some sort of speaker configuration profile so that I could turn off all of the speakers except for the Front Left and Right Pre-Out as well as the SubWoofers.  The subs would be used for both speaker configurations.  I think the Anthem has something like that.

Seems like I could just use a stereo power amp and control the volume from the Receiver.

NO!!! The only thing worse than an AVR’s amps is its preamp section, and a good preamp is absolutely crucial to getting good sound. That’s why I recommended an integrated stereo amp because then you’re completely replacing the AVR for critical 2-channel listening. What I’d recommend is minimizing your expense on an AVR that has front L/R preouts and maximize $$$ toward a good integrated stereo amp. Here’s the AVR I’d buy because it’ll do everything you need for HT processing and powering your center/surround speakers…

https://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/yamrxa780bl-rb/yamaha-rx-a780-7.2-ch-x-95-watts-a/v-receiver/1.html

What are your speakers, what amp/pre/AVR do you have now, and what improvements are you looking for and what sound characteristics are most important to you? With this info we can start talking about stereo integrated options that would be worth exploring further. And yes, you have the correct idea that you’d use the front L/R preouts from the AVR into the integrated stereo amp, and if the integrated has a HT bypass function you literally push one button to switch between HT and stereo, and when in stereo the AVR is completely out of the system, which is what you want.  It’s a beautiful thing really, because you literally have the best of both worlds in one system.  I did this for years until I finally got my own dedicated listening room, and it was a great way to go.  Goodonya for putting in the effort to research this option, because it will serve you well!

Thanks again. Its a good thing I’m asking! What I currently have is as follows:

Receiver: Pioneer VSX 822. (I was going to get rid of this)

Speakers are:

Warfedale Diamond 9.0 and 9.1 for the rear L/R and Front L/R

1 x Martin Logan Motion SLM XL for the center channel

4 x Martin Logan ML 67i in the ceiling

4 x 10" Self powered Sub Woofers that I built. All of them are in the walls and are 10" because that is all I could fit in the walls. They are in their own 1 cu ft enclosures and each one is powered by a dedicated DSP enabled amp.

I also have an old pair of Polk Monitor 5 Jr + speakers that I bought new when I was in High School in the 80’s. I was actually never really all that happy with how they sounded. I always thought that my friends Infinity RS 3000 sounded better. But I’ve had them for years. May tweak them a bit. When I was in college one of my friends got an NAD Amp and a pair of Rogers speakers that sounded really spectacular.

I’ve been considering several options. One is an NAD receiver and then adding on an NAD two channel power amp. That set up would be an NADT778 + an NAD C 275BEE. I would also need an NAD C268 to power one pair of the ceiling speakers as the NAD doesnt have 4 powered channels.

What is tricky is that I want to use the subs for both the stereo listening as well as the home theater listening.

I’ve been considering several options. One is an NAD receiver and then adding on an NAD two channel power amp. That set up would be an NADT778 + an NAD C 275BEE. I would also need an NAD C268 to power one pair of the ceiling speakers as the NAD doesnt have 4 powered channels.…What is tricky is that I want to use the subs for both the stereo listening as well as the home theater listening.

No.  Just, no.  Listen to me — get a decent AVR like Yamaha and then add a really good stereo integrated.  You’re going down a bad path.  NAD may be convenient but is not your friend.  Buy a Yammy AVR and a great integrated from Hegel, Pass, Yamaha, Ayre, etc. and you’ll be MUCH better off.  Why the fixation with NAD?  

NAD is just one possibility. I’ve heard NAD amps in the past and I was impressed by the sound quality. But open to others.

Similarly, I heard an Anthem 740 at a local shop and it sounded pretty good too.

In the set up you are describing would I have two different pairs of front speakers?

Is it possible to incorporate the subs into the stereo configuration? What I’m really looking to do is a 2.1 set up for music listening. It looks like the Hegel Integrated Amp has line out so thats one way it could work, however how could I have the subs as part of the home theater configuration also?