Upgrade for Thiel 1.6 - Or a waste of $$

You know, there are three multichannels amps i've HEARD good things about: Butler, Outlaw, and AKI.

Their power ratings, their weight, and the selling price, all are quite good. They may not be prestige brands -- but maybe they may do the job well... ASAIK, you can buy as many channels as you need.

So, how did the Benchmark compare to the RSX-1067? If it was an improvement, then seek out a 2-ch pre-amp with HT bypass. That way you can keep your current setup and use the new pre-amp for just 2-channel listening. This is the best way to optimize your system for 2-channel. HT pre/pros (and receiveers) aren't great performers for 2-channel unless you get into some very high end components. I think CJ, Rouge, Sonic Frontiers and others have the HT bypass feature.

Perose - You're on the right track. The RSX-1067 offers a full analog bypass mode (which I use) but I'm sure it's not the ideal path.

I've read up on Arcam's AV8 @ AV9 but not the others you mentioned.

Wish there was a good integrated that allowed for dual use...Is there such an animal?

A dumb question, but wouldn't "relieving" the Thiels of lower freqencies (that they were engineered to deliver) change the true sound and performance of the speakers? And not in a good way, either.

I've used a bypass with lesser speakers but I was under the impression that it was more or less a gimmick meant to make mass produced audio sound/preform better.

Thiel's own sub offering uses an inline filter that doesn't change the signal to the mains....I'm pretty sure.