How do I merge home theater into my 2 chan setup?

Thank you both for the responses. I think that the last solution would work best. I think this would work perfectly for dvd playback. For CD playback, my only concern would be that this might degrade the sound slightly by having the signal passed through two preamps (assuming you are using a single source dvdvideo/cdplayer). I think my solution would be to utilize this set up, but when playing CD's to switch the interconnects and by pass the HT preamp entirely and go directly to the audio preamp. This way, there would be no sound degradation by having the signal processed by two preamps. What do you guys think?

I can't figure out a way to have a one unit CD/DVD player and keep the CD output from going through two preamps/processors, unless of course these combo players have two sets of audio outputs, one for cd audio and one for dvd.

Or, the other solution would be to have the setup exactly as described above for the dvd video portion, but have a separate audio only cd/sacd player which feeds the audiophile preamp directly. Then there is no need for cable switching (but this gets expensive unless you buy a really cheap dvd player for video only)

Yikes - talk about mental masturbation - all for the fun of good listening!

I could really use some advice on the same. I am mainly a 2 channel stereo purist, but would like a good set up to watch movies on at home.

I currently have a 2 channel set up that consists of the following:

Old Denon pd300 belt drive turntable
Grace 747 tonearm
Dynavector Karat moving coil cartridge
Lehman Black Cube phono prestage
BAT vk5i preamp
Mark Levinson 331 Amp
Innersound Eros speakers
Old Sony ES CD player

I also have an old pair of inifinity 2 way bookshelf speakers that were my wife's from ages ago.

I have two goals here:

upgrade my CD player (thinking $2k-$3K range - I almost bought the Wadia 850 when I was buying the BAT and the Levinson)

figure out a way to integrate home theatre into the stereo system without compromising the stereo.

I was thinking about the Arcam FMJ cd/dvd player, the sony 9000 cd/dvd/sacd player, but man am I tempted by that Gamut CD player. Anyone have any thoughts on the best CD player that also happens to play dvd or would I be better off with a cd only player and then a separate dvd player for video?

Secondly, preamp, amp, processor - should I go with an all in one unit - if so how to integrate with my current set up - should I go with separate pre/processor and with a separate amp? Once again, how to integrate? Should I get a 3 channel amp (I think arcam makes a model specifically to get to get you to a 5.1 system with an existing 2 channel stereo) or should I get a 5 channel amp or combo pre/pro/amp which I could then integrate with my stereo into a 6.1 channel set up. I already have pretty fixed ideas on certain speakers (innersound will be coming out with a center channel speaker soon, I really like the rel stadium subwoofer for its quickness and musicality), but am relatively open to new ideas on the rears (either two surrounds or a two sides and two rears).

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. And yes, I'd like to keep this within some semblence of a sane budget - say $2K ish for the cd player/dvd player and less than that if possible for the pre/pro/processor amp.

Thanks again guys. I have yet to purchase a cd/dvd player - I am in the market for one to upgrade my old CD player. As a result, I was not aware that I had the ability to have analogue outs for the cd playback with the l/r front channels for pure audio - to be run to the audio preamp only, then the have digital outs for the dvd portion which run through both preamps - which is fine because with film the sound quality really isn't going to matter that much. As you can probably tell, I really am a neophyte when it comes to dvd video. This discussion has been very helpful!!! Now comes the hard part, choosing the cd/dvd player and the pre/processor/amp!!