Bypass Preamp& Amp

Take it out. Maybe dinner and a movie, who knows, good things might happen.

Hey Thanks Dakota! I thought you'd like that humor. It was much better than what originally came to mind. Humor aside, I believe my advice is technically accurate as well.

Best of luck to you.

Maybe my humor was poor.

Nevertheless, lets see if I can help you with your problem. There's a lot of gaps to fill in. I suppose this is a surround system (the question is posted under HT) and I further suppose you have a DVD player which possibly pulls double duty as a CDP. I suppose you are trying out Intergrateds because you want to improve your two channel sound.

You could run the Digital out from the DVD to the Denon and the Analog outs from the DVD to the Intergrated. Hook your primary L/R speakers to the Intergrated. Run the Front L/R preamp outs from the Denon to an available input on the Intergrated. You would have a unity gain issue when in surround but you would have a nice clean seperated signal path for two channel and you could still have surround when you want it. Voila!

I am just taking a guess at what your goal is. For a dumb guy that aint bad is it? Also, in the future, could you please ease up on the Ad Hominem, or at least wait until I've called your favorite piece crappy sounding!

"What happens is that both volume pots are fuctioning! I talked to intergrated company today and they assure me this will do no harm to intergrated."

Yes, unity gain. Should be harmless, unless its severly overdriven, in which case you would certainly notice. No worries but a little bit of a pain to balance the two controls.

You're right, the Denon Preamp is (more than likely) degrading the sound. Which is why I recommend removing the Denon from, if nothing else, that particular loop in your system.

You will need to run Analog L/R outs from the DVD player straight to the Intergrated (Using a another input). Thus bypassing the Denon altogether but you would then be relying on your DVDs DACs and output stage. This is a cleaner/straighter wiring scheme and potentially better but only if the DVD player is up to the task.

Some gear will alow different (maybe better) solutions but I am not sure of which models we are talking about. A DVD player which has a good analog section could be just fine hooked up the way I previously described. And BTW, is exactly how I have my DVD player hooked up.

Yes Willhiteb, I meant to point out that, your suggestion is correct but I forgot. Sorry for being redundent and forgetful. However, no y connectors are necessary in this case.

I fully agree with Willhiteb. If I were demo'ing I would pull the Denon and cleanly install the new Intergrated for a no compromises audition. The wiring scheme I later suggested, is more of a permanent install configuration for a two channel Intergrated and a Surround Receiver living harmoniously in one system.

All's well that ends well. The Cronus is a fine piece BTW.

You'll definitely want to use that HDMI input when you go HD-DVD, so a HDMI switcher may be in order. My TVs built in scaler does just fine with the Component input from the Cable box. I tried DVI and HDMI (vs Component from the Cable box) and I cant see a difference. I do strongly prefer the HDMI output from my DVD player upscaled to native 720p. Your mileage may vary, so I merely state my preferences, which should be taken with a grain of salt.

Speakers are as diverse as it gets and personal too. I havent heard Castle at all, so I cant comment there.

Theres a ton of variables, likes, dislikes, Size, WAF, etc . to go through with speakers, but I bet some A'goner can help you out.