I am thinking of getting a receiver to use as my A/V pre pro to replace my Outlaw 950. It seems that I may realize more bang for the buck by taking this route than purchasing an expensive dedicated preamp/controller. My system consists of a 65" Panasonic plasma,an Outlaw 755 (200 WPC X 5,I have no intention of going 7.1 or beyond) Paradigm Studio 100 mains,large CC690(?) center,2 ADP 590's rear and a Revel 15" sub. I watch 2 Blu-Ray movies weekly and the rest of my viewing is Time Warner HD cable. I am primarily interested in the home theatre experience. I would prefer to keep my big 80 lb. amp but I suppose I could sell it if I found a receiver with enough power. My speakers are quite large and apparently not very efficient since the 200 watts per channel is,believe it or not,only adequate. I will,on rare occasions listen to music,but very infrequently and even then it is usually just music channels from the cable provider or regular cd's played in Stereo with my sub. I do however,have a decent ear ,even if I am 61 years of age. I bought my first tube amp back in 1969 and I went on to play the Fender Bass professionally for nearly 20 years. I realized long ago that I could not duplicate the experience of playing live onstage at home. My bass rig for quite some time consisted of 2 Ampeg SVT tube amps,400 WPC RMS each through 4 15" JBL D140's....kind of hard to duplicate at home,folks! I am a dinosaur and I have no interest in connecting to a computer,ipod,ethernet,streaming,wi-fi,no second zone or any of that kind of stuff. I just use Blu-ray,cable box and XBOX only. I think what I am after here is a unit that has some type of room acoustic correction like Audyssey or Trinnov and all the latest stuff like True HD,1.4 HDMI,etc. I would like to be able to set it up once and then the unit will automatically go to the correct setting depending on the source. At this time I run the HDMI connections straight from the cable box as well as the Blu-Ray player directly into the TV bypassing the 950. If memory serves,my XBOX 360 is connected to the 950. Most of the discussions here in the Saloon are over my head,but after 40 years of listening I know what sounds good to me (TUBES!) and I am hoping that you guys might just break it down for me in simple terms. I have read opinions and reviews until I feel like my head is going to explode. I would like to hold it under a grand but I'll pay more if necessary......Thanks!

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Edited by zsazsa (07/29/10 03:42 AM)
Edit Reason: sp