Need Advice - new system

I am a Focal guy and love my 836v speakers and almost got the 816v. I also do home theater and stereo in the same room. I personally would get a stereo integrated with a home theater bypass to power the mains so you can hook you stereo sources directly to the integrated. The Krell S300i would be my dream toy for this scenario and would be a fantastic match with the Focals. I was recently blown away by the 807v speakers using this amplifier.

The rest depends on your budget. You could do a surround receiver with pre-outs to process and handle the other channels. I think anything beyond 5.1 is overkill unless you have a dedicated theater room.

I think that you need to think of everything as a true system. How will the products integrate with each other? I have owned Focals and Proacs (selling off a couple of pairs), but fell in love with the Vandy Treo's after auditioning a ton of speakers. I noticed how different they all sounded depending on what the other components were. There were so many differences. I'm a tube guy, but wanted a SS integrate. I ended up with the Ayre as it sounds best with the Vandy's. I also thought it sounded best with the Paradigms, B&W's, all Focals, Dali, Dynaudio, Totem, Theils, Sonus and so many others. The Krell sounded pretty good to me (I have owned Krell and am even selling off a Krell Stealth), but it lacked midrange bloom when I heard them in the same situation that I heard the Ayre or a couple of others. For home theater, it's a GREAT amp to use as it has power to spare, like it always has.

There are so many great choices out there. I am not a home theater guy as it has to be set up perfectly and it costs too much to get great sound for me. That's why I stuck to two channel so that I could afford to get a great system, instead of just a really good one. I'm in the minority here I know.

I'm selling my Proac Supertowers AND Proac Studio's that are voiced identically. If you have interest in them as a package you can then add a new/used Proac center channel or even get another set of used Studio's. To me, that would be a better sounding system as they soundstaging, imaging would be much better than the Focal's that I could have gotten a few years ago, but the Proacs sounded better to me. The mids would also be more accurate and musical, but those are my ears, lol. Let me know if you have interest and we can talk.

The Krell sounds like a good idea, but it's still considerably more expensive than the Emotiva XSP-1 Gen 2 Pre Amp and an XPA-2 Gen 2 300W x2 or an XPA-5 Gen 2 200W x5, which I have in mind. I know some audiophiles like to bash Emotiva as mid-fi, but the reviews I have been reading state otherwise – their products are very highly regarded and are at a much more reasonable price point than anything even approaching similar quality/features. As far as the Proac Supertowers/Studios are concerned, I like the idea, but I am loathe to purchase speakers i have not heard and I am unlikely to find a dealer that carries the Proacs. I would like your opinions on Emotiva - for those that have experience with them. Should I go the Emotive route, I would save ~ $,1500.00, when compared to the Anthem system I was considering, and have separates! I could then purchase a great separate tuner (FM, AM, HD, XM) and an Oppo BDP-103 and still have a good chunk of change left over to allocate to the Focal speaker system. I was also considering Paradigm speakers or possibly Snell, but Snell is too expensive... I am not adverse to purchasing used components either. I am also not certain if I should get a 5 channel amp or just a 2 channel amp for the mains – I understand that I would need a 5 channel for the speaker suite I have in mind, but I could start with a 2 channel Emotiva for the mains, & when I have additional funds, I could purchase a center channel, sub and surrounds & another Emotiva 3 channel amp. I am also a bit confused regarding 5.1 systems: 2 mains, 2 surrounds, a center channel and a sub = 6 speakers – how does this work on a 5.1 system? Also, when listening to music, does the system automatically revert to 2-channel or would I need a separate “home theater bypass? Also, on the Emotiva pre amp are there controls for treble, bass, balance, etc... Please forgive my ignorance, but I am fairly new to Hi-Fi as my last new system was purchased ~ 20 years ago...