Using AVR Direct Mode for external amps

Too general. What sources? What price category?

I used my HK avr7200 as a pre for my forte 4a-I was able to blend the avr for home theater with the forte and have just the forte for my merlins in 2 channel--but--with the advice of several buds I checked with Dan Modwright to see if an upgrade to a seperate pre would produce any major sonic improvments-of course he said yes.So I bought a modwright SWL 9.0SE-and I can say it is well worth it.Hope this helps.I have enough extra speakers that I set this system up separate from the rest-the merlins have never sounded so good.Dan felt that having a tube pre-amp with solid state is one of the best ways to go.Good luck.

Even if the AVR is in the same price category as the Pre Amp it has the cost of features such as its amps, tuner, etc that mitigate any useful comparison based on cost. I would think the AVR would need to cost considerably more for its Pre Amp section to possibly contain the same quality components as a stand alone Pre. Anyways I think any comparison of products based on price is only the very roughest of guides.

Without specifically comparing the two I would be inclined to think that the components of AVR would not be of the same quality and that the other features might contribute noise into the system that would not be present in a separate.