Unless you feel your system is lacking in dynamics or sounds like it's straining at your listening levels, you might not want to replace the amp just yet. There are a bunch of tweeks you can to to the typical H/T setup to improve performance. The first would be to adjust speaker location and make sure there is plenty of room between the TV and L/R speakers. You may even have to move them forward so that they are not on the same plane as the TV. TV's are bad for sound and the bigger they are, the more problems they cause. Even better would be to get a plasma and get rid of the box altogether.
You could also try is getting new CD's. One reason people are happy with home theater performance is because movie soundtracks are recorded at a higher sampling rate and sound much better then your typical CD. But there is alot of variablity even amoung redbook cd's. Look for newly remastered copies, HDCD's or enchanced versions of your favorite songs, DTS cd's, or even DVD video. I wish there was more out there in terms of multi-channel audio because the sound really is fantastic.
As a last resort you might want to consider a tube CD player. Some people like the tweekability aspect they provide, but i personally never found them to improve the sound as much as finding a better recording.
You could also try is getting new CD's. One reason people are happy with home theater performance is because movie soundtracks are recorded at a higher sampling rate and sound much better then your typical CD. But there is alot of variablity even amoung redbook cd's. Look for newly remastered copies, HDCD's or enchanced versions of your favorite songs, DTS cd's, or even DVD video. I wish there was more out there in terms of multi-channel audio because the sound really is fantastic.
As a last resort you might want to consider a tube CD player. Some people like the tweekability aspect they provide, but i personally never found them to improve the sound as much as finding a better recording.