Getting back in the game

OP,

If you have the long term desire to have a great system. Then audition these integrated amps… and maybe a couple more. Save a few more dollars. The “under $10K) for an integrated is a key price point (I think a lot of Boomers are downsizing and want really high performance) in a smaller footprint. I think this is the sweet spot for “affordable” high end.

Then wait whatever time you need to buy an appropriately matched streamer and DAC. You could take the intermediate step in getting a Schiit Yggdrasil ~$2.5K (often considered to compete with DACs at twice the cost) to hold you over. Then the next step would be a streamer (Aurender N200)… then later upgrade the DAC.

This way each step gives you significant sound quality improvement and at the end you have a synergistic system with all components at roughly the same quality level.

OP,

I have B&W 805’s in my Home theater. They are not hard to drive compared with most planar and some others.

Typically, for a major upgrade one would start with speakers. They will have the biggest effect on the sound. If you are very happy with them, then let’s move on. You do not want to make this completely infeasible.

My rule of thumb is, generally all your components must be carefully chosen to be the best for the price and compatible with the rest of your system. That means streamer, DAC, Preamp and amp are roughly equal in cost. I have to say I was very impressed with the sound of the Pass INT-60. It is musical with great rhythm and pace (musicality… makes your foot tap… emotional connection), as well as a lot of power (do not judge by watts itself).

I would find it hard to think anyone would criticize this integrated. It puts you into the realm of audiophile. A unit you could be proud to own and would be a great sounding amp for 10, 20, or 30 years.This is the mark of really great components.. timelessness.

As far as streamer… I would recommend, first of all separate streamer and DAC. a Aurender N200 would fit and be consistent with a great system.

Hmm, DAC. I am just not that familiar with DACs in this price range. I own an Audio Research Reference CD9SE. It is so good, it completely threw me for a loop. I had a $22K well respected DAC in my system and honestly I found my ARC was better (given my values).

‘’Maybe someone else couple take the ball on a fantastic DAC in the $5K range.

If you can only afford the integrated for now, you would get such a huge improvement… you could enjoy that for a couple years before you could afford the DAC and Streamer…. Then you would have a huge jump in performance again. A few years later upgrade speakers.

This is a good time to take this real slow. Give a lot of thought to how to do this.

It is very difficult to get high end audio sound from an AVR / home theater. By combining functions both can be severely compromised. The best is to have them completely separated. 
 

They can be combined using a pass through so your stereo speakers are connected to audio equipment to your speakers. You want separate audio preamp / amp of audio quality for stereo listening and then use the AVR for home theater and all the other speakers. I was able to separate my HT from my stereo system thirty years ago… so, I’ll let some of the folks here that have done it advise you. But a few things.

HT does not require the same high quality as stereo to be enjoyable (you are distracted by the video)… and as a consequence you are not going to get it. 
 

Combining multi functions in one box significantly reduces sound quality. AVR is a real problem, but these days integrated amps can be really good. I was listening to a Luxman (509), Pass (INT-60), and Audio Research (I-50) this weekend. I can recommend any of them… but I am much fonder of the latter two because of the more natural musical presentation.
 

‘Anyway, think, research, think some more. There are so many ways to do this these days it can boggle the mind. It is really easy to do this simply and end up with a mediocre system.