[quote=Escaron]
If you are moving to a larger room, or are, like me, open to the idea of future experimentation with outboard amplification, just make sure you get one with pre-outs.
Ditto that. You won't be "missing" anything with a 3808 or Onkyo (or any other AVR in that $1500+ price range). But adding more power is not as expensive as I thought. By sacrificing some fancy box options, and working around a loud fan, I got a pro amp to push over 500watts (when needed) for under $500. I found parts of music I did not know where there (and thus did not miss them) after years of happy listening to my Denon 3300.
On that note, I have an interesting (to me) A/B comparison of the 3300 to the pro amp. My FL and FR are on the QSC GX5, my center is on the Denon 3300, rated at 110w. What I had always perceived as a limit to my PSB towers was a harshness on the high end of male vocals over 98db. Doing some intense listening to the new Dave Matthews Band album in 2 channel, I loved every second and never heard a drop of that sizzle I had always been able to find on DMB vocals, some horns, etc. But when I switched to 5 ch, I could hear that little bit of distortion/error/sizzle again. It was coming from the center channel on the Denon. When the Denon was running all 3 fronts, I heard that from all 3 (or 2 as the case may be), routinely. Now, its gone when the separate amp is in the chain.
So in a quasi-A/B test, I can say the additional power of the separate amp makes a "cleaner" sound than my Denon. Since all amps "sound" the same, I chalk this up to more power and clipping, not better amplification. Important note: my 3300 is now almost a decade old. So this may not apply to the newer Denon amps, but then again, the modest power increases from 110 to 130 should make almost no difference and amp section has not changed much, if at all, from what I have read, since they still use the same processing path and amp design.
Don't spend all these two cents in one place.
