What is the Current Guidance on Stereo and AV Configurations

OP, for those new here, @soix has a history of trolling those who bruise his ego and, when backed into a corner, tends to retreat with "my time is too valuable to waste explaining things to my inferiors." Case in point. Sorry to pollute your thread, but this one time, I just couldn’t let it lie.

In this case, with postings that are simply getting louder, not smarter, it was hard to even identify soix’s specific point of disagreement. If I had to guess, it was an asertion that being forced to manually rebalance the volume level of a front-ch amp every time you change the volume of a multichannel processor is no big deal.

Well, that may be true for some people. But my point was that you can’t blindly make that assertion across-the-board. For most audiophiles, it’s important to take the time to correctly -- even "perfectly" -- balance front/center/surround levels every time you adjust the AV receiver volume. And, worse, for non-audiophile family members who just want to watch a movie, an extra step that likely requires an additional remote can be a dealbreaker. I can just imagine my husband’s reaction if I told that he’d have to continually rebalance front-channel volume levels unless he was willing to always watch Netflix at a single "reference" volume.

Soix, if you still feel an urgency to argue, focus on that issue. Generalized ranting about how "nothing is correct" in my explanation gets you nowhere if you don’t even try to point out and "correct" a specific statement in my message. But an even better resolution would be to just rest on what’s already been said. I know that not getting the last word may be a proglem, but I sense that this argument has started to grate on other members.

This is apparently, as those in the legal profession are fond of saying, "an issue upon which reasonable minds can differ." The grown-ups in the room should be able to agree on that.

Bottom line: OP, maybe you can live without HT Bypass. Maybe not. But I wanted to at least give you the opportunity to make an informed decision by more objectively describing the problem that HTB was designed to solve.  When you cut through the noise, I hope I was at least a little bit helpful.

If I had to guess, it was an asertion that being forced to manually rebalance the volume level of a front-ch amp every time you change the volume of a multichannel processor is no big deal

@cundare2 Once again, this is simply false and very misleading. Why can’t you get this? Changing the volume of an AVP or AVR absolutely does not necessitate continually changing the volume on the stereo amp, period, and that would be absurd if that was the case. As I mentioned in my previous post that you clearly don’t comprehend, once the reference volume level is set on the stereo amp (and to be ultra clear, the reference volume level is set once on initial calibration and does not change so is always the same volume level on the stereo amp) it just stays there and the AVR’s volume can be changed freely without affecting the overall balance and without having to touch the stereo amp’s volume again at all. Saying the stereo amp’s volume needs to be adjusted every time you change the volume on the AVR is just flat-out wrong information! Again, as someone who actually worked without a HT bypass, which you obviously have not, you clearly don’t understand how this works and as a result are in ignorance misrepresenting that this is difficult or at all cumbersome — it absolutely is not, and even my non-technical wife had no problem with this setup. I’m not looking to get the last word here, but I won’t let misleading information potentially affect someone else’s decision just because you can’t comprehend it. I feel like I’ve now explained this clearly several times so it’s apparent you either can’t or won’t ever get this, so my hope is that others do get it, which I’m sure they will, and that your cognitive limitations don’t affect them unnecessarily. Maybe someone else here who actually understands this and may have a bigger sledgehammer can finally penetrate the thick brick wall we have here.

Connect the AV front L&R outputs to your stereo bypass inputs. Check for consistant phase between the stereo and AV outputs. This can be done by connecting only one channel through the stereo preamp and the other through the AV amplifier and making sure you have a strong central image. If you don't you need to reverse the terminals of the front left and right speaker connections.

Once everything is hooked up correctly with the proper phase you then adjust the levels of the front speaker for consistent output volume with the rest of the AV system.

Having done a bit more digging.... how many "boxes" are you all typically using? This looks like a 2-box solution with an integrated amp and going up to insanity from there.

The one bit that I'm chewing on is that the AV Receiver is heavily underutilized if it's only driving the center speaker. So, I looked at monoblocks but that just adds so many pieces to the solution.

First of all @kaizen28 I will say you can truly have the best of both worlds and anyone that says otherwise is stuck in the dark ages.  HT Bypass is a game changer for sure.  ignore the noise in here and pay close attention to the list @tony1954 posted above.  BUT having reread your initial thread 2.0 vs. 3.0 is kind of a nominal move.  In that case I would buy a well used AVR for a few hundred bucks (keep in mind it needs pre outs)  and pair it with anything from the list above. And yes to answer one of your earlier questions that AVR would only power the center, but would feed your new HT Bypass amp bypassing the preamp section.  I run 5.1 with a nearly 20 year old AVR along with a very modern integrated.  

With regard to your last question yes my initial shopping/upgrade plan was to get the best AVR possible.  Once I realized the gains that could be had from pairing the two boxes, I had no qualms about making a bit of extra space.  I built a rack to move to monoblocks if needed, but don't think it's remotely necessary.  Take a look at my system for reference.