After all the helpful feedback from this forum I took the plunge and purchased dedicated music amps and used the pre-outs on the Sony. Musically the System shines, the Tannoy MX4's have never sounded so sweet and expressive. Surprisingly the 5.1 material is somehow more open and dynamic with the Arcam's performing the front speaker duties. From my experience I wouldn't heitate in utilising the pre-outs on the Sony receiver to upgrade both musically and in 5.1 mode. Thought I'd share my experience and thanks to all who helped me work out what to do.
Rich, I thought the Arcam A75 was an integrated amp, so are you using this as your pre or the Sony for 2 channel? Either way, the Arcam's are great amps, and with Tannoy's... What can I say, British sound rocks! Cheers, Mike
Thanks for the comments Mike, the A75, as you rightly point out is an integrated amp and I've paired it with the P75 to bi amp the front speakers. The Sony's pre outs feed into the A75. The A75 has a nifty feature which makes it dead easy to pair with an av amp, there is a AV Processer switch which fixes the gain. When I recalibrated the HT setup I didn't really need to make any changes and the improved sound from the front speakers when in 5.1 mode has added a new depth to the overall performance of the system. Do arcam and Tannoy sell well in OZ? They don't seem to get much of mention when people talk about there setups.
British gear is actually pretty popular, at least here in Victoria. The dealers who I frequent most often stock B&W, Tannoy, Kef, Mission, Castle, Arcam, Cyrus and assorted Aussie brands, and they get pretty good press too. Because of our poor exchange rate, American gear is often way overpriced, and so doesn't sell as well imho. Of course, buying homegrown equipment usually works out as best value Cheers, Mike
