Moving From AVR to Amp

You have a great start with the Totems. If you're mostly interested in HT, then moving to a multichannel amp and pre/pro at this stage makes sense. If you're generally happy with your HT set up now, though, you might consider adding a nice 2-channel amp (keeping your AVR as the preamp). I'd bet that your Totems would begin to open up and sing on 2-channel material with just that change alone. You could then reassess and decide whether you want to add in a 3-channel amp for your rear and center speakers. There are a lot of great options for high quality, $800-1500 2-channel amps. Many folks here on AudiogoN use 2-channel pre-amps with home theater pass through options. You may want to look into that if you haven't considered.

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If you are looking for good audio results (ie. 2-channel) as well (though for many that is not very immportant - if that's your case, disregard my recommendation completely), I would go with a decent 2-channel amp and also a 5-channel amp (just using 3 of the 5 channels for now - but having the other two available when going to 7.1/7.2)

I have never heard a multi-channel amp come close to sounding as good as a equal level 2-channel amp when it comes to stereo/2-channel music listening.

I have owned and auditioned some very good multi-channel amps - none of them could compare remotely with comparable 2-channel amps, including:

Krell TAS (better than most multis, but still not good enough - owned)
Theta Dreadnaught (lousy 2-channel performance - owned for 1 month, sold and the buyer sold w/in 2 weeks due to the same bad performance)
Halcro (okay in 2-channel at best - auditioned multiple times)
Krell KAV (mediocre in 2-channel - owned)
Conrad Johnson (okay in 2-channel - owned)
B&K (mediocre in 2-channel - owned)

Auditioned many others, not one has ever come close to performing above average for 2-channel performance. I am demanding for 2-channel, but not very much so for HT, I just don't watch enought TV/Movies. In the end, I have two completely different systems and am perfectly satisfied with a AVR and below average speakers for HT. Maybe its that Hollywood doesn't make any good movies anymore - IMO.

But that's just me and your goals may be different between 2-channel and HT.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Meiwan: Do you really think I won't hear a difference adding an amp but using the Onkyo as a pre/pro? Hmmm. I didn't expect that. I figured that since the processor portion would become outdated soonest and the AVR is only 2 years old, that I should focus on the amp now, make a long term investment in a good one, and then upgrade to a separate preamp and processor later. I will consider your advice.

Macdadtexas: I was considering the Oppo BDP-83SE or 93 as an all in one solution. That seems to be a favorite on avsforum too. I hadn't considered a DAC. My computer builder friend was going to set me up with a NAS and stream the music from that. Would the sound quality be much better using the Sonos and a DAC?

Ethos: While I don't intend to go to 7 channel any time soon, I figured a 7 channel amp would give me the capability to do so and in the mean time, I could bi-amp the main speakers with the extra 2 channels. I suppose that is one of my main questions - do I lok for a multichannel amp that can cover all needs or is it better to build gradually to that?

I have the same Onkyo 805, and I think it is quite good for HT. Plenty of power (130w/ch), Odessey room equalization, THX certified, 7.1 so you can biamp. That said, I have to agree with Ckoffend. A dedicated 2 channel amp for music is going to be much better that a multichannel amp.

BT, I wouldn't worry about balanced cables unless you have runs longer than 4 feet or so. You won't hear a difference.