What setup for my dedicated home theater?

Yes first take back the Onkyo if you can. At one time Onkyo was a higher end brand but has gone mass market and unfurtunately that brings with is QA problems. It's not really 80W/channel into 8 ohms 20hz-20khz. Look at the specs closer. The 80W is two channels driven. This is one of the most misunderstood and misleading specs in AVRs. I've been preaching this for some time now on Audiogon. Brands like Rotel and NAD do not do this. What has to be written is ALL CHANNELS DRIVEN.

I'm a Rotel man myself and I have to say the quality and performance is there, not perfect but pretty darn close. Solid build too. A higher end top quality 5.1 channel AVR such as Rotel or NAD should cost you new in the $1400.00 area. What did you pay for Onkyo? You have an excellent AV pre-pro and multi-channel amp in the Rotels. The RMB-985 is 100w/channel into 8 ohms 20hz-20khz ALL CHANNELS DRIVEN. That's a great amp. I hae the one up from that the RMB-1075. So stick with those for your new room. Also, as far as HDMI, what do you need from that? It really excels more for video than audio. I simply plug my digital cable box and blu-ray player directly into the HDMI inputs on the TV. Really no need to go through the pre-pro for HDMI video. What would you really gain? You want the shortest path for your HDMI video signal to the TV in my opinion. Snell floor standers are super units and the Monitor BR1s (I have a pair) are great for your surround sound speakers.

Thanks for the response. I only paid $250 for the 509 so it was a very low risk expense. I wanted the newest surround sound formats and HDMI switching. I have my bluray, XBOX360, and hdmi cable box hooked up to the receiver which then runs in-wall to the ceiling mounted projector...so it is pretty important to me since swapping the cable is a real PITA. That's what I did with the older Onkyo receiver and I was done with that. I don't need anything crazy, HDMI 1.2 is fine since I couldn't care less about 3D and I only need it to transmit video. I do want the newest formats though since I've watched a few blurays in the lossless formats and the experience has been pretty awesome.

What is the deal with the "Emotiva UMC-1"? I've never heard of the company but a few onliners seem to love it for the $$. I think it looks cheap but whatever as long as it sounds good. I could run that to the Rotel 985 and bring the Snells into the HT. I bet that would be awesome.

Any other pre-pro suggestions? I have many hobbies to fund so keeping this under $500ish is important.

Thanks

Buy a used ROTEL RSP 1570 I have one in my system it sounds great in 2 channel and the new digital formats.

Okay, so as I was warned, the Onkyo AVR was a disaster. It seemed cool at first, just plug in a few HDMI cables, wire up the speakers, let the unit auto calibrate and enjoy! ...until it breaks...repeatedly! I've now had this POS unit in 4 times to fix the output stage. The repair place keeps blaming it on "user wiring defects". I have an old Onkyo running in the exact same system whenever this new POS breaks and no problems! I've even run the POS in a separate system with just a CD player and two small monitors and same garbled static output! UGH

So back to square one. Do I but a new/used AVR or a pre/pro and use my Rotel amp? I see a few Integra pre/pros on the board for sale 9.8 and 9.9 that have me intrigued. What do you think? They are both a few years old, so what new formats would I be missing out on? I've convinced the wife to up the buy in since the POS experience is frustrating her too. So I think I'm in the $600-$800 range now.

"So back to square one. Do I but a new/used AVR or a pre/pro and use my Rotel amp? I see a few Integra pre/pros on the board for sale 9.8 and 9.9 that have me intrigued. What do you think? They are both a few years old, so what new formats would I be missing out on? I've convinced the wife to up the buy in since the POS experience is frustrating her too. So I think I'm in the $600-$800 range now."

Sorry about your bad experience with your Onkyo TX-NR509. I have used an Onkyo TX-SR705 for over 5 years with zero issues at all. With that said, most of the time I used it as a pre/pro with a 200w/ch multichannel amp so never any power issues. It now resides in my bedroom system with a 5.1 satellite speaker system that does not tax the amps at all. I think a used Onkyo/Integra pre-pro is an excellent choice with your Rotel. From my understanding, these pre-pros are excellent performers and reliable.

Bill