Just my 2 cents.
MC is correct about AV receivers for critical listening. I have one, a Yamaha V781. As it has pre-outs, first I finally tried a separate B&K amp to power the fronts, that helped sweeten the sound when in two channel, but I was being bothered by many to get a 2 channel preamp as well. I didn’t want to believe I needed to do that, heck, the B&K had 135 wpc and was a nice improvement and sounded pretty good using the Yamaha as the preamp. Then I replaced the B&K with an old Belles 400A, with 200 wpc. Very very nicer still. But again, everyone said ‘get a good preamp’!
Well, I finally did. Got a Parasound preamp with a pass-thru to run my Yamaha though when in HT mode, but all my 2 channel runs through the Parasound pre and Belles amp.
I was wrong, they were right, it sounds incredibly better for 2 channel, and I was shocked at the difference.
No matter what I did to the Yamaha, I could not make it sound like the Parasound/Belles combo. Yamaha Pure Direct? That may have been the worst sound of all.
So, now I have a very nice 2 channel set-up, and with a push of the Parasound remote, can go pass-through and have my HT as well via the Yamaha, albeit in my case, the fronts are still powered by the Belles. You could consider a nice integrated with a pass-through and do the same, your Yamaha has pre-outs for the front channel. Beyond that, you may have other issues, but I can tell you, you won’t get what you are looking for with your Yamaha as a 2 channel ‘integrated’ or ‘pre’. May as well start there.
I can be stubborn, but finally learned that didn’t get me what I wanted. Much happier now.
MC is correct about AV receivers for critical listening. I have one, a Yamaha V781. As it has pre-outs, first I finally tried a separate B&K amp to power the fronts, that helped sweeten the sound when in two channel, but I was being bothered by many to get a 2 channel preamp as well. I didn’t want to believe I needed to do that, heck, the B&K had 135 wpc and was a nice improvement and sounded pretty good using the Yamaha as the preamp. Then I replaced the B&K with an old Belles 400A, with 200 wpc. Very very nicer still. But again, everyone said ‘get a good preamp’!
Well, I finally did. Got a Parasound preamp with a pass-thru to run my Yamaha though when in HT mode, but all my 2 channel runs through the Parasound pre and Belles amp.
I was wrong, they were right, it sounds incredibly better for 2 channel, and I was shocked at the difference.
No matter what I did to the Yamaha, I could not make it sound like the Parasound/Belles combo. Yamaha Pure Direct? That may have been the worst sound of all.
So, now I have a very nice 2 channel set-up, and with a push of the Parasound remote, can go pass-through and have my HT as well via the Yamaha, albeit in my case, the fronts are still powered by the Belles. You could consider a nice integrated with a pass-through and do the same, your Yamaha has pre-outs for the front channel. Beyond that, you may have other issues, but I can tell you, you won’t get what you are looking for with your Yamaha as a 2 channel ‘integrated’ or ‘pre’. May as well start there.
I can be stubborn, but finally learned that didn’t get me what I wanted. Much happier now.