Thanks Guys.
Don't worry 2x6spd I'm still in the planning phase and it would have taken a bit of convincing to connect things that way as it felt rather counter intuitive, that's why I was asking.
Tomtuttle: indeed this seems to be the crux of the problem for me. I'm wanting to build the system as flexible as possible, hence the separate amp idea, but I'm not wanting to do it for a cost of more than something like a Denon 2805/3805. I was hoping this would be possible then at least I could update the reciever once in a while and not have to re-spend more money on amplification just to get the latest and greatest features of the day.
So then the question becomes:
Hanging out here for a while I have developed the idea that it seems the consesus here in choosing a reciever is to look for features that you want, since all well made brands ( ie like onkyo, yamaha, denon, harman, nad )are equivalent sound wise. look for "Quality and Features" seems to be the operative words.
In this case then would you folks think a combination of say Harman Kardon multichannel amps or Onkyo M282's with a cheaper reciever like a Sony ( provided it has preouts ) would sound worse that a good reciever from one of the brands mentioned above. If such a combination would NOT be as good then that pretty well solves my dilema as I'm not prepared to spend more than the cost of a good reciever like a Denon 3805, even though I'd still like the flexibilty of separates.
Thanks, Mike
