Oops, I didn't clarify my comment about hearing the difference between pre/pro vs. AVR. For me, the decision is more about the power from the amplifiers. My media room will be about 3500 cu ft and used for approximately 50% movies and 40% gaming. So, I figure my amplifier will need to be able to pump out a fair amount of power (at least briefly for particularly loud effects). Somehow, 100 W per channel sounds like a nice comforting number for me (I realize there's no particular rationale behind my choosing that number), so I'd like a system that could do that for at least the front 3 channels. I'm not sure that most AVR's will be able to drive 100 WPC x3 simultaneously(ignoring the lesser power draw for the surround channels). Well, the high-end AVR's may be able to, but their price tags puts them in the range of separates anyways. Most consumer AVR's (< $1000-$1500) would need a separate amplifier to put out that much power, so I'm back to considering separates.
Currently, I'm considering using a $400-$500 AVR as a pre/pro and pairing it with a $500 Emotiva LPA-1 (125 WPC x7, all channels driven). My main concern about the AVR is that the amplifier section will be drawing some power, which will run up the electricity bill and generate more heat. Unfortunately, I can't find a pre/pro that has lip sync/audio delay without costing substantially more than the AVR's that have this feature.
