Lipper,
I'm in complete agreement with what Zed said (Zd542). I also 2nd what Vicdamone suggested: the new preamp with ht passthru should be a tube preamp.
Since you use your system 75% for music, 2-channel should be your priority for an upgrade. The ht passthru enables you to gain the benefits of a high quality tube preamp for music while maintaining the use of your processor for movie surround sound. Adcom amps can be a bit sterile and bright in the upper frequencies. Tubes will mitigate the brightness and your music will sound more liquid, textured, organic and realistic, especially on good recordings. I use a VTL 2.5 tube preamp, along with a Parasound processor, for this exact purpose and can verify it does what I described above very well. But I know there are several good quality tubed preamps with ht passthru that would also work well for you.
The keys are the tubes and the ht passthru. An added benefit is you can tailor the sound to your taste by substituting the supplied tubes with after-market ones. NOS (new old stock) Mullards in the VTL have matched my taste the best so far.
Good luck and let us know if you need help with hookup instructions.
Tim
I'm in complete agreement with what Zed said (Zd542). I also 2nd what Vicdamone suggested: the new preamp with ht passthru should be a tube preamp.
Since you use your system 75% for music, 2-channel should be your priority for an upgrade. The ht passthru enables you to gain the benefits of a high quality tube preamp for music while maintaining the use of your processor for movie surround sound. Adcom amps can be a bit sterile and bright in the upper frequencies. Tubes will mitigate the brightness and your music will sound more liquid, textured, organic and realistic, especially on good recordings. I use a VTL 2.5 tube preamp, along with a Parasound processor, for this exact purpose and can verify it does what I described above very well. But I know there are several good quality tubed preamps with ht passthru that would also work well for you.
The keys are the tubes and the ht passthru. An added benefit is you can tailor the sound to your taste by substituting the supplied tubes with after-market ones. NOS (new old stock) Mullards in the VTL have matched my taste the best so far.
Good luck and let us know if you need help with hookup instructions.
Tim