I have a Krell HTS 7.1... (i upgraded from a Proceed AVP). After living with it about 2 months, i realized i could have purchased a used HTS 5.1 and gotten all i'll ever use out the 7.1 i purchased.
There's actually one for sale on the site right now for 1800$ (and no i don't know the guy selling it).
The only thing i don't like about it is that it runs pretty warm. In a sealed room like mine, it adds enough btu's that you might wish you had some more ventilation.
If your not familiar with the Krell HTS series, they used the same analogue preamp that's in their serious two channel gear. It sounds quite good. I run my DVD standard analogue out (for two channel mode) into the HTS. Sounds really sweet (i have martin logan ReQuests). For movies i run the digital out from my DVD standard...and it's very nice. Extremely dynamic.
Amplification is another matter though, for that you really need to consider what you'll be driving. I moved from levinson (334) to plinius (sa 250 mkIV) for my martin logan's and have really enjoyed the change. The levinson sounded great but couldn't keep up with the movie sound tracks. The plinius has more power and drives the martin logans with more authority. Maybe your not looking in that price range, but the point is that the amp really needs to be paired intelligently with the speakers. I'd suggest find the speakers you like the most in your budget, then look for amp recommendations (figuring that your first recommendation is probably what you auditioned them with).
Anyway...just a couple of thoughts.
Remember this is more of a journey then a final decision. It'll make the first decisions a little easier to swallow.
There's actually one for sale on the site right now for 1800$ (and no i don't know the guy selling it).
The only thing i don't like about it is that it runs pretty warm. In a sealed room like mine, it adds enough btu's that you might wish you had some more ventilation.
If your not familiar with the Krell HTS series, they used the same analogue preamp that's in their serious two channel gear. It sounds quite good. I run my DVD standard analogue out (for two channel mode) into the HTS. Sounds really sweet (i have martin logan ReQuests). For movies i run the digital out from my DVD standard...and it's very nice. Extremely dynamic.
Amplification is another matter though, for that you really need to consider what you'll be driving. I moved from levinson (334) to plinius (sa 250 mkIV) for my martin logan's and have really enjoyed the change. The levinson sounded great but couldn't keep up with the movie sound tracks. The plinius has more power and drives the martin logans with more authority. Maybe your not looking in that price range, but the point is that the amp really needs to be paired intelligently with the speakers. I'd suggest find the speakers you like the most in your budget, then look for amp recommendations (figuring that your first recommendation is probably what you auditioned them with).
Anyway...just a couple of thoughts.
Remember this is more of a journey then a final decision. It'll make the first decisions a little easier to swallow.