A few new questions for me

Definitely keep the amp and get a pre/pro IMO. Upgrade the rest of the system, then upgrade the amp. It's a very good amp. A little old, but Bryston ages very well.

so i guess for me it boils down to

-like Kbarkamian said - keep the amp and build on it

OR

Take a little more cash and just buy a SR7005 or something equivalent that has a built in amp and NOT fiddle with the separates...

Thoughts?

That amp will power speakers better than any receiver that I know of. Most receivers' spec sheets are a bunch of BS when it comes to ratings. They'll take one channel at the easiest to reproduce frequency for a millisecond, and measure it for a nanosecond. This is how they can get away with figures like 170 watts x 7. Your amp's specs are legit. If it says 150 x 5 or whatever it is, you can bet every channel does that simultaneously throughout the entire frequency range. You can also bet that it'll drive low impedence speakers without a hiccup.

Sorry if I sound like a salesman. To me, it would be a no-brainer. But I don't have your room, space requirements, budget, preferences, etc.

i hear what your saying. and i too feel the same. i know about head units and car amplifiers so i think this about the same situation. no head unit would power a set of separates the same as a good 4 channel amp. this amp will be in a living room powering five in ceiling 8" speakers so i am not looking to blow the doors off my house with those.

are receivers decent though for processors?

I've used a 512 for many years in a nice HT system. It will blow doors off, but the point is really control and clarity that a quality high-powered amp brings to and over your speakers.

I believe it is 140wpc. I just sent the 2nd unit (of the 5) back to Bryston for update/repair. It is $120 vs the $200 I paid a nunnery of years ago when the first channel died.