should plenty of $$ be spent on the preamp in a home theater system? up to $4-6k can be spent just to produce an adequate sound stage and accurate DSP for presentation! I'm struggling with the same cost-splitting decisions now. I've got $10k to spend for speakers, amp, preamp and sub. One day I go from spending $5700 for B&W Nautilus 804, HTM-1 center channel and nautilus 805 surrounds and getting lesser quality amp/preamp/sub combos. The next day I'm thinking of spending $2800 for the Lexicon DC-2 with full upgrades (best price I've found new or used). Anyway, I'm rambling... my point is that I don't think there's a right way to do it, so just do it and be happy with your decision. I do think I'm going to spend the majority of my $$ (in my case, 60% as Alruhl suggested above: $5700 speakers out of $10k budget) on speakers... any comments? thanks for reading... -baz
