Receiver

@erik_squires has stepped away from the forums for a while but he told went to Anthem, regretted it, and recommended the Marantz cinema 50 to me.  I am very happy with it.  But I have never heard the anthem.

I do not use my reciever for 2 channel sound.

Jerry

Outlaw 2160 mkII then $9000 for albums 

McIntosh Mac 7200 receiver. 200wpc. Quiet preamp and excellent tuner. 

A reminder that he posted this in the home-theater category.

No, never get a receiver..... The power amp sections should be separate, not in the same box for an audiophile experience, i.e., if you also plan to listen to music with it.

Get a Surround Preamp Processor such as the Marantz AV10 (there are no amplifiers built into it!!!).

Thereafter, get any number of power amplifiers for how many ever speakers you’ve got.

For example, here is a decent Multichannel Power Amplifier.

ATI 6600 signature series series, 300Watts @ 8 ohms, 450 Watts @ 4ohms all channels driven.... Since you can get these with any number of channels ranging from 2 to 7, you could probably get one 3 channel amplifier for the front stage and a second amp with however many channels you need for the remaining channels (surrounds, back surrounds, heights, etc).

Other cheaper multichannel power amplifier options could be the bigger Class AB Rotels, Parasound, Monoliths, etc.

You could also use any of the hifi 2 channel high end amplifiers you prefer for your surround rig, but, the latter approach could get quite expensive.