I went through much of the same sort of dillema as you. Although my Surround receiver isn't up to the caliber of yours it suites my needs for movies adequately. I started by adding a Anthem MCA-20 amp at 225Wpc. Then I added a few Harmonic Technology cables. Then came a Musical Fidelity CD player (major improvement over the DVD used for CD). Then I added a Sonic Frontiers Line 1 preamp that has a SSP pass through. Lastly I added the Virtual Dynamics Audition cable package with a biwire configuration which truly iced the cake. I also have the Studio 100's and unless you are wealthy or hyper-critical probably won't want to change them once you hear what they can truly do. They just need a really good power amp to make them sing and good cabling to get all the power there. I may add a pair of Studio 20's or 40's down the road and seperate the 2 channel from the multichannel as I do get a bit of a ground loop from the pre and the SSP. As soon as I disconnect the SSP all noise is gone. But that's another kettle of fish. Good luck.
Denon 5800 as preamp in "pure direct" mode?
I am trying to upgrade the two channel audio performance of my home theater. I have purchased a two channel amp (McCormack DNA-2 DLX)to connect to the pre-outs of my Denon 5800 receiver's front left and right speakers (Paradigm Ref. Studio 100's). I am wondering if anyone has an opinion of the Denon as a two channel preamp in the "pure direct" mode? Is this severly degrading signal quality? Would I benefit greatly from adding a proper preamp with a home theater pass through to my system?