You will hear an immense, obvious, and very very worthwhile improvement going from your Denon multi-channel receiver to ANY integrated amp. The improvement is so vast you could sell your Denon and with whatever you get buy a new integrated and it will still sound a lot better.
Don't take my word for it. Go and listen. DYODD!
The reason this works is very simply that when it comes to sound quality, QUALITY is a lot more important than quantity. Receivers try and cram way too much stuff into a box. So many parts the designer is forced to spend pennies on parts that require dollars to sound good. Then even if by some miracle a few good parts get in there they are still all crammed so close together it makes proper isolation impossible. On and on. Its just a mess.
Buying a pre-amp in your case however would be a mistake. A pre-amp needs an amp. What you want is an integrated, a pre-amp and amp in the same box. A STEREO integrated. Because the exact same logic that applies to the receiver also applies to multi-channel.
Don't take my word for it. Go and listen. DYODD!
The reason this works is very simply that when it comes to sound quality, QUALITY is a lot more important than quantity. Receivers try and cram way too much stuff into a box. So many parts the designer is forced to spend pennies on parts that require dollars to sound good. Then even if by some miracle a few good parts get in there they are still all crammed so close together it makes proper isolation impossible. On and on. Its just a mess.
Buying a pre-amp in your case however would be a mistake. A pre-amp needs an amp. What you want is an integrated, a pre-amp and amp in the same box. A STEREO integrated. Because the exact same logic that applies to the receiver also applies to multi-channel.