pre amp/processor

Good choices so far. After studying the on-line manual and reviews for your Denon 5803, it appears you've got a damn good AVR for its time. While a bit dated, it has the power and features to start you out with a very good sounding surround system. 170 watts/ch/continuous into 8 ohms x 7 is excellent. Must have been top of the line back in the late 90s. It also has 7 audio surround sound formats and a full set up menu. Do you have a sub-woofer yet? While I don't see the dedicated sub-woofer output circuit in the back panel in the manual, it must be there somewhere. The manual shows a sub-woofer connected but I don't see the actual output RCA jack. Weird. There are a ton sub woofer brands out there but since you have B&W speakers, I'd stick with them. I have two and they've been great. I use two for more balanced room loading.

As far as HDMI, I don't bother with those circuits on my Rotel AVR although I don't have the very latest high def audio formats such as Master Audio and Dolby HD. I would have to use HDMI if I had those. I simply connect my Marantz Blu-ray player's HDMI output to my TV's HDMI input for the best in video quality. For audio, I use a mixture of digital and analog interconnects.

Is the Emotiva XPA-2 for powering the front speakers B&W 804s?

thank you

Sorry, i ment to write...you posted in hometheater, but you asked about amp/ preamp.

I know you posted in the amp preamp section but i i would change things in this order.

1) get the htm1 center... that would make the biggest difference. and they are at a good price used.

2) either get a matching mono amp for the center or get a three channel amp and run the fronts on the three and the rears on your two channel.
Running all three fronts on amp or amps will be great.

3) if cost is a factor get a receiver that has preouts to your amp and then you will have the hdmi that you are looking for.

for a little more money get a pre from marantz or similar priced pre's

i have a very similar system, and that is where the change was actually noticeable.

Bill