I am looking for some advice for my next upgrade whether to buy a new receiver with HDMI capability or add a 7125 to my current setup.

Right now I have a10+ year old Sony ES receiver that supposedly puts out 85W/channel into 8 ohms. I have Polk speakers (5) all have 89 to 91 for sensitivity with LCR rated at 200 W and the surrounds at 125W. The L and R have built in SW so would like a processor/receiver that has better bass management as well. I am running all HDMI into the LCD TV and my bluray is decoding the HD audio then input to the receiver via analog inputs.

If I were to go to an amp now and a new pre/pro later (such as the newly mentioned 978) which amp would be a good option the 7125 or the 7500 as I tend to hold onto my gear for a while before upgrading.

My room is approximately 20x25 with a cathedral ceiling opening into a loft.

Any suggestions/help is appreciated!!

This is my first post here and no I do not own any Outlaw stuff just yet although I have been interested for many years.

Which polks?

I am running the RT 20p as LR, a CS350 for center and a pair of RTi35 for the rears.

I am trying to decide if I should buy a new receiver in the next few months and then add an external amp later or buy the amp now and then a pre/pro later. My ultimate goal is to move to seperates and then eventually upgrade speakers.

I have been looking at the Onkyo 808, Marantz 6005, or the Denon 3311 for recievers. My Sony ES receiver does have pre outs for a new amp.

I'm also running big Polks and first tried upgrading receivers to a Dennon 3801. The sound improved, but a year later I was buying seperates and have never looked back. Once you've got the bug, you might as well save some money by skipping the "better receiver" phase and set about building the system that you want.
The Sony will sound better with a seperate amp.
With your room and speakers, I'd buy the biggest amp that I could afford.I don't think you'll ever regret it.

+1. I found a noticeable difference when upgrading from a good Yamaha receiver to the receiver and 7125. Moving up to the 7500 improved the sound quality even more. I recommend going with the larger, separate amp. The Outlaw 30 day guarantee allows you to decide if that combination fulfills your audio needs.

Rob

A good number of people have had their systems go through some kind of evolution. A common theme happens to be the transition to separate amp(s). The improvement is not necessarily the SPL levels but rather the sound is cleaner and more detailed with separate amps. With a receiver you have to share the power with preamp duties, video processing etc. This leaves a little left over for audio amplification. Using a separate amp, leaves a dedicated power supply just for audio.

Looking back, one of the most dramatic improvements was using a separate amp for all channels. I have a secondary system where I also use a separate amp (mains only). The reason was simply because it sounded more detailed using an outboard amp for the mains.

Another advantage is that one does not really have to worry about using speakers with an impendance rating of less than 8 ohms. I have a set of Axioms (M80) driven by an ATI1202. I do not have to worry about the receiver going into protection mode.

You can always try it for 30 days. Even after the 30 day period, separate amps are fairly easy to sell, if you still don't like them. My first amp was an Outlaw 7075. When I caught that disorder (upgraditis), it was easy to sell at value(minus shipping charges/taxes). Buy as much amp as you can afford the first time and avoid the common disorder.

I concur with the others who said to get the largest separate amp that you can afford. The improved cleanliness of the sound, and not the level, is what you hear most when you move up to a larger amp. Additionally, with more power, the amp is not driven as hard. Anecdotally, I had a 7125 driving my 5 NHT L5 surrounds and it got pretty hot (but admittedly not to a problem level) under everyday (mostly TV) use. Because the heat gave me any excuse for my upgraditis, I moved up to the 7700 (with balanced outputs too) and it is cool all the time, even under heavy loads. For example, I was driving my whole 7.1 system (on the Outlaw 990 7.1 stereo mode) really hard--i.e. super obnoxious loud when the wife wasn't home--for several hours and my 7700 was still cool. In fact, I was driving the system so hard that I even blew a center channel speaker DRIVEN BY A DIFFERENT AMP--it turned out my center channel trim was turned up 3db over all my other channels to make voices better for TV which I guess was a bit too much for the volume I was using. Therefore, go with the largest amp you can afford; but don't be too obnoxious with the level when your channel trims are out of wack.

You could always try a big monoblock for each of the mains and a smaller 5 or 7 channel amp for the rest of the system.

Thanks for all of the great input!! I am leaning toward the external amp as well right now. The only issue is the WAF and saving more money for the bigger amp. Now, I am looking at the 7200,7500 or 7700 depending on how little patience I have to save more money and what is available in B stock when I am ready to buy. Any thing to know about these amps or should I just buy one, hook it up and rock out!! If I time it right perhaps I can get a combo deal on one of the amps and the 978!!

Going this route makes more sense in the long run as I do want to upgrade speakers down the road.

thanks again!!

How many channels do you need and do you need balanced connections. Sounds like 200 watts is you power need. The 7500 and the 7700 are essentially the same amp with different channels. The same is true with the 7125 and the 7200. If you don't need long runs between the amp and its source, balanced connections don't really get you anything other than better noise rejection. Over short cable runs you won't need it so why pay for it. Also if the amp has balanced connections we tend to think we have to use them, so we tend to limit the choices of pre-pros to only those that have balanced outputs.