Mdomnick,
To answer your second question, yes you can use two preamps in a combined HT/Stereo system very easily. The easiest solution is to buy a stereo preamp that has a home theater passthrough feature, which allows you to only use the stereo components for 2-channel listening but also lets you seamlessly switch to a pre/pro(your Lexicon) for surround music/movies by pushing one button. You never have to worry about volume matching and in stereo listening the Lexicon is totally out of the loop. Personally I think this is the least costly and most sonically pure way to go. Here's a partial list of companies that make stereo preamps with HT passthroughs:
Adcom, McCormack, Sonic Frontiers, Rogue, Levinson/Proceed, VAC, AR, Conrad-Johnson, PSE, and probably a few others I've forgotten.
You can do this with any stereo preamp, but if it doesn't have an HT passthrough feature you'll have to set the stereo preamp to a pre-determined reference volume level every time you switch to surround music/movies. Not a big deal, just a little bit of a pain and definitely more of a problem if other people(i.e. non-audiophiles) use your system. Hope this helps and best of luck.
Tim
To answer your second question, yes you can use two preamps in a combined HT/Stereo system very easily. The easiest solution is to buy a stereo preamp that has a home theater passthrough feature, which allows you to only use the stereo components for 2-channel listening but also lets you seamlessly switch to a pre/pro(your Lexicon) for surround music/movies by pushing one button. You never have to worry about volume matching and in stereo listening the Lexicon is totally out of the loop. Personally I think this is the least costly and most sonically pure way to go. Here's a partial list of companies that make stereo preamps with HT passthroughs:
Adcom, McCormack, Sonic Frontiers, Rogue, Levinson/Proceed, VAC, AR, Conrad-Johnson, PSE, and probably a few others I've forgotten.
You can do this with any stereo preamp, but if it doesn't have an HT passthrough feature you'll have to set the stereo preamp to a pre-determined reference volume level every time you switch to surround music/movies. Not a big deal, just a little bit of a pain and definitely more of a problem if other people(i.e. non-audiophiles) use your system. Hope this helps and best of luck.
Tim