Moving From AVR to Amp

Well, your Onkyo is clearly the weak link - both as a pre-amp and as an amp. I'd be inclined to drop the Onkyo and look for a decent pre/pro + power amp. Maybe a gently used Anthem, Classe, Cary or similar.

Just adding a power amp to the Onkyo will help drive the Totems properly, but won't likely improve the overall sound quality a great deal.

As far as getting a good stand alone DVD/CD player, I don't think such a thing exists - that will play Blueray. If you are really into good CD sound, look for a decent CD only player and either keep what you've got for blueray, or get a cheap blue ray player as well.

For 5 vs. 7 channel, except for the odd blue ray disc I doubt having more than 5 channels is worth it. Personally 5 channels is plenty for me. Of course, if you are set on it, go for the 7 channel - it's likely a lot cheaper than adding another 2 channel amp later + power cord etc.

Just my pov

I second the moving from AVR to seperates, dump the Onkyo.

I would look to buying a very good pre HDMI pre-pro and let your video be switched at the TV level, if that's possible. Have the BluRay player decode the surround modes from movies, and send the sound via analog cables to the pre-pro.

For the disc player, don't do it. I would buy a good Oppo BluRay player for discs and seperate DAC.

for your $4000 budget hear's what I would do:

Parasound C2 ($1000) pre pro

Parsound 2205 AT ($750) Amp (great amp, will work well with your Totems)

Oppo BDP-93 ($499) plays everything

MHDT Havana DAC ($899) great tube DAC, hard to find used

Sonos ($369) download all your discs and run the music on here to the DAC, use a good digital interconnect.

all interconnects from Signal Cable for multichannel, and find some used Kimber Hero or Cardas for about $110 a pair to run from the DAC to the pre pro.

well, that's my $0.02

You have a great start with the Totems. If you're mostly interested in HT, then moving to a multichannel amp and pre/pro at this stage makes sense. If you're generally happy with your HT set up now, though, you might consider adding a nice 2-channel amp (keeping your AVR as the preamp). I'd bet that your Totems would begin to open up and sing on 2-channel material with just that change alone. You could then reassess and decide whether you want to add in a 3-channel amp for your rear and center speakers. There are a lot of great options for high quality, $800-1500 2-channel amps. Many folks here on AudiogoN use 2-channel pre-amps with home theater pass through options. You may want to look into that if you haven't considered.

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If you are looking for good audio results (ie. 2-channel) as well (though for many that is not very immportant - if that's your case, disregard my recommendation completely), I would go with a decent 2-channel amp and also a 5-channel amp (just using 3 of the 5 channels for now - but having the other two available when going to 7.1/7.2)

I have never heard a multi-channel amp come close to sounding as good as a equal level 2-channel amp when it comes to stereo/2-channel music listening.

I have owned and auditioned some very good multi-channel amps - none of them could compare remotely with comparable 2-channel amps, including:

Krell TAS (better than most multis, but still not good enough - owned)
Theta Dreadnaught (lousy 2-channel performance - owned for 1 month, sold and the buyer sold w/in 2 weeks due to the same bad performance)
Halcro (okay in 2-channel at best - auditioned multiple times)
Krell KAV (mediocre in 2-channel - owned)
Conrad Johnson (okay in 2-channel - owned)
B&K (mediocre in 2-channel - owned)

Auditioned many others, not one has ever come close to performing above average for 2-channel performance. I am demanding for 2-channel, but not very much so for HT, I just don't watch enought TV/Movies. In the end, I have two completely different systems and am perfectly satisfied with a AVR and below average speakers for HT. Maybe its that Hollywood doesn't make any good movies anymore - IMO.

But that's just me and your goals may be different between 2-channel and HT.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Meiwan: Do you really think I won't hear a difference adding an amp but using the Onkyo as a pre/pro? Hmmm. I didn't expect that. I figured that since the processor portion would become outdated soonest and the AVR is only 2 years old, that I should focus on the amp now, make a long term investment in a good one, and then upgrade to a separate preamp and processor later. I will consider your advice.

Macdadtexas: I was considering the Oppo BDP-83SE or 93 as an all in one solution. That seems to be a favorite on avsforum too. I hadn't considered a DAC. My computer builder friend was going to set me up with a NAS and stream the music from that. Would the sound quality be much better using the Sonos and a DAC?

Ethos: While I don't intend to go to 7 channel any time soon, I figured a 7 channel amp would give me the capability to do so and in the mean time, I could bi-amp the main speakers with the extra 2 channels. I suppose that is one of my main questions - do I lok for a multichannel amp that can cover all needs or is it better to build gradually to that?